Multiple people were killed and injured in a serious incident that resulted in a fire on one of Canada's busiest military bases in Alberta, Defense Minister David McGuinty has said.

Reports have also said that large numbers of injured people were being transported to hospitals.

Fire crews scrambled late into the night as fierce winds whipped flames beyond Canadian Forces Base Wainwright and into the surrounding rural area.

It was not immediately clear how many people were killed or injured, but a doctor at a hospital in the city of Edmonton, 180 km (120 miles) northwest, told Canada’s national broadcaster that patients were being brought to hospitals across the city as health-care facilities around the base became “completely overwhelmed” by the number of people needing care.

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