At least 40 people were killed on Thursday when a devastating fire tore through a forest near the northern city of Haifa, prompting Israel to call for international help to put out the blaze.

Police sources said at least 40 people had died in the blaze which officials said was the worst in Israel's history.

Israel's ambulance service Magen David Adom initially said around 40 people had been killed, but later said they could confirm the deaths only of some 22 people, with the others regarded as "missing."

Police sources said a bus carrying prison guards had been caught in the flames, killing all on board.

"All those who were killed were on board the bus. They were all prison guards," a police source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Officials said hundreds of firefighters on the ground and in the air were trying to extinguish the fire which broke out shortly before midday and incinerated hundreds of hectares of land.

But as night fell and the fire was still raging out of control, Israel's fire service issued an appeal for all the firefighters in the country — around 1,500 — to report to the scene to fight the inferno.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made an international call for help to put out the blaze, a statement from his office said.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in the last few minutes with the heads of Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Russia with the aim of recruiting additional air fire fighters from these countries to help put out the fire in the Carmel," it said.

Gruesome footage showed the gutted remains of a bus, while other images showed charred corpses lying on the ground, their clothes burnt off and only their boots visible.

Fireman Dudu Vanunu told Channel Two television he saw flames consume the bus.

"Anyone who's ever seen a firestorm will know. They could not survive it, they had no protection, they just fell to the road and burned alive," he said.

The Zaka organisation, which recovers human remains in accordance with Jewish religious law, put out a call for all its volunteers to report to the area.

Police said they had evacuated the Damon prison, which mainly houses Palestinian security prisoners and those found in Israel without permits.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that about 20 families from the Arab village of Ussafiya had been evacuated from their homes as flames swept through the pine forest covering the Carmel hill ridge, one of Israel's most popular beauty spots.

Yoram Levy, a spokesman for the Israeli Fire and Rescue Commission, said emergency workers had evacuated the nearby Beit Oren Kibbutz and a luxury hotel in the path of the fire.

At 4:30 pm (1430 GMT) he said the blaze was still burning out of control.

"It's not getting better, and it's getting dark," he told AFP.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.

"We think that it might be an accident that started from one of the garbage points that was burning," Levy told AFP.

Rosenfeld said police were looking into the possibility that arsonists started the blaze, but he cautioned it was "too early to say yet" if that was the cause.

Officials said the fire began around 11:30 am (0930 GMT) and was still burning seven hours later.

Israeli President Shimon Peres issued a statement offering his condolences and said Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad had also extended his sympathies during a phone call.

"Fayyad conveyed to President Peres the condolences of the Palestinian people to the Israeli people over the tragedy," the statement said.

After a long, dry summer Israel is experiencing an unusually warm and dry autumn.

The Israel Meteorological Service listed the midday temperature in the Haifa area on Thursday as 31 degrees Celsius (87 Fahrenheit) with winds reaching 30 kilometres per hour (17 mph).

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