Wildfire in US west kills 2: police

Almost 6,000 acres (2,400 hectares) have been charred since the fire erupted in the Sierra Blanca mountain range in New Mexico on Tuesday.

The blaze is one of a handful burning in the southwestern US state, where man-made climate change has worsened a historic drought and made swathes of the tinder-dry countryside vulnerable to fire.

Emergency services say they were called to a house in the village of Ruidoso, where an elderly couple had been unable to flee encroaching flames.

The pair's bodies were found the following day.

"New Mexico State Police is currently working with the Office of Medical Investigator to positively identify the deceased victims and determine the cause and manner of death," a force spokesman said Wednesday.

The so-called McBride fire began Tuesday afternoon; by Thursday morning, it had burned through 5,700 acres and was continuing to rage out of control.

At least 200 properties have been damaged or destroyed, and electricity supplies to the area have been interrupted.

Like much of the American West, New Mexico is in the grip of a years-long drought that has left the area parched and vulnerable to wildfire.

Although fires are a natural part of the climate cycle and help to clear dead brush, their scale and intensity are increasing.

Scientists say a warming climate, chiefly caused by human activities such as the unchecked burning of fossil fuels, is altering weather patterns.

This prolongs droughts in some areas and provokes unseasonably large storms in other places.