Chile's National Office of Emergency (Onemi) on Sunday issued alerts in the country's central zone as forest fires swept across the region.

Onemi issued an early preventive alert for the regions of Coquimbo, Maule, Bio Bio and Valpraiso and a yellow alert in the regions of Villa Alemana and the Metropolitan.

Fires at Batuco (280 hectares) in Lampa, Monte Blanco (1 hectare) in El Monte and Loica (40 hectares) in San Pedro, all in the Metropolitan region, had been put out, Onemi said.

But fires in the localities of Til Til and Calera de Tango were still active, although no threat to houses, Onemi added.

According to Onemi, two forest fires in the localities of Villa Alemana, Limanche and Olume are under control while a fire in the locality of Quilpue was still active. The three fires, all in the Valpraiso region, had already destroyed 1,087.4 hectares of forests.

Onemi also said three fires in the Maule region had been extinguished after destroying 3.7 hectares of forests, and a fire in San Javier locality, although under control, was still affecting 10.2 hectares of forest.