Agriculture and Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said the blaze prompted the evacuation of six villages on Turkey's northwestern coast.

"We have concentrated all our forces on protecting the (Canakkale) city centre," Yumakli said in televised comments.

"The good news is that the winds seem to blowing away from the city centre of Canakkale."

Televised images showed clouds of thick smoke rolling over the edge of Canakkale. NTV television said the fire was approaching a local hospital and university campus.

The emergency response service closed a local highway as a precaution and dispatched 10 planes and 26 helicopters to help douse the flames.

The Dardanelle Strait links the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara and is a popular tourist destination because it is also the site of the ancient ruins of Troy.

Turkey's transport ministry did not explain its decision to keep southbound traffic along the strait open.

"Tugboats have been alerted in case a possible response is needed should the fire reach the seaside," the ministry said in a statement reported by the Anadolu state news agency.

Turkey has been trying to modernise its emergency response service after being gripping by hugely destructive fires along its southern and western coasts in 2021.

The flames scorched more than 200,000 hectares of forests and claimed at least nine lives.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came under heavy criticism for his response to the disaster at the time.

The scale of the disaster raised the focus on environmental issue in Turkey and promoted Erdogan to pushed through Ankara's long-delayed ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement.