Australian bushfire death toll rises to 4

SYDNEY -- A man's body has been found in burnt-out bushland in the Australian state of New South Wales, authorities said on Thursday, taking the death toll of an ongoing bushfire emergency to four.

Police believe the remains are that of a 58-year-old man who lived in a shed nearby and had been missing since blazes flared up last Friday.

Three other people were killed when a record number of emergency level fires struck the state's north coast region on Friday and Saturday, all of whom were over the age of 60.

Almost one week later, exhausted firefighters continued to battle roughly 56 blazes across the state, 24 of which were uncontained.

"After a challenging few days, there are still more than 800 firefighters in the field working on containing these fires," a New South Wales Rural Fire Service spokesperson said.

So far this bushfire season more than 1 million hectares in the country's east have been scorched and over 200 properties damaged or completely destroyed in NSW alone.

Further north, in the State of Queensland, where 14 properties have so far been lost, conditions are predicted to worsen throughout the weekend. As of Thursday morning, there were around 80 fires burning across the state.