A British couple were discovered semi-conscious and severely burned in a ravine in Almeria, Spain, by police searching for survivors of a devastating wildfire, rescuers confirmed on Saturday.

The pair are believed to have been hiking when they became trapped by the blaze, which has claimed 12 lives and scorched more than 6,000 hectares of the southeastern Spanish province since Thursday.

Civil Guard officers found them in the charred landscape near the worst-hit community of Bedar as night fell on Thursday, during their search for those caught in the inferno.

Sergeant Pedro Barre, one of three officers involved in the search operation, said in the early hours of Friday that they had heard a sound far away but thought it was an echo.

“As you gain more experience, something inside you tells you, ‘Look again, try one more time,'” he told Spain’s TVE state broadcaster.

Following the sound and climbing down a hillside, they found the couple in critical condition, semi-conscious and with severe burns covering 40 per cent of their bodies. They initiated a two-hour rescue operation to transport the couple to intensive care in hospital.

“Being able to call out in the condition they were in was a titanic effort,” said Rafael Zea, another of the officers involved in the operation.

“We’ll never forget that look of surprise and emotion on their faces,” Barre added.

The couple are among eight people hospitalised with burns after the wildfire, which represents one of Spain’s deadliest on record.

On Saturday afternoon, after high winds eased, firefighters continued to beat back the flames that have forced the evacuation of at least 1,400 people from their homes.

More than 500 firefighters and emergency workers are involved in the firefighting effort.

Antonio Sanz, head of emergencies in the Andalusia region, told reporters on Saturday morning at the emergency zone cordon that the wildfire remained “complex” and continued to advance.

He applauded firefighters’ work in stopping it from crossing the highway towards the more heavily populated coastal towns.

“So far we have been engaged in defense work, to prevent advances,” he said. “Today is the first day we will be able to work on attacking the fire.”

Forensic scientists in Madrid are using samples from the bodies of the victims and DNA samples from the families of those reported missing to try to identify the dead.

Most of those killed are thought to be British and Belgian nationals, along with one Spaniard.

The Civil Guard confirmed on Saturday it had arrested two people on a “serious disobedience” charge for allegedly returning to their homes against the instructions of police, after evacuation from a high-risk zone.

“The Civil Guard reminds the public of the importance of complying at all times with evacuation orders and established access restrictions, as failure to do so puts at risk both their own physical safety and that of the emergency crews working on the ground,” the force said in a statement.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s office confirmed he will visit the affected area on Monday.