More than 1,000 firefighters were yesterday still battling a giant forest fire that swept through central Portugal at the weekend, killing at least 62 people.
Police said a lightning strike on a tree probably caused the blaze, in a region hit by an intense heat wave and dry, gusty winds that fanned the flames.
The global community has stepped in to help, with Spain, France and Italy sending water-bombing planes.
Nearly 900 firefighters were still battling the flames around Pedrogao Grande, a town 150 kilometers (95 miles) northeast of Lisbon.
Portugal has suffered high temperatures that have reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degress Fahrenheit) in recent days.
The wooded hills in the area north of Lisbon, which 24 hours before had glowed bright green with eucalyptus and pine trees, were gutted by the flames.
Image Below: A woman is attended by Red Cross workers outside a relief centre for people affected by a forest fire in Figueiro dos Vinhos, Portugal, June 19, 2017. At one spot, a police officer watched over the covered body of a victim of the fire.
The fire, which Prime Minister Antonio Costa called, "a dimension of human tragedy that we can not remember", started Saturday and was still burning as of Sunday afternoon, requiring the attention of around 1,600 firefighters over the weekend.
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An inquiry should be properly resourced so it can get the full truth about the fire as quickly as possible, he said. When the prime minister visited the west London site of the fire on Thursday she spoke only to emergency services.
Another 54 people have been injured, including four firefighters and a child with serious injuries. All available means of assistance have been mobilized towards Leiria, including four fire fighting aircraft sent from Spain.
A massive #Forest Fire claimed sixty-two lives and more than fifty people were injured in the forested region of Pedrógão Grande, which is about 200 km away from the Portuguese capital Lisbon.
Secretary of State for Internal Administration Joao Gomes reported that the number of deaths had risen as a result of the devastating wildfires that erupted on Saturday in the vicinity of Pedrogao Grande, a small rural town near the city of Coimbra, reports Efe news.
While he knows the area well, he said, "we've got tourists and others who probably had no idea where they were going".
He said a key measure would be the creation of "fire-resilient communities" who receive instructions on what to do when faced with a wildfire and don't act rashly.
Many world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressed solidarity with Portugal. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted that he was "overwhelmed by the tragedy at Pedrogao Grande".
Portuguese officials say giant clouds of smoke are preventing the deployment of water-dropping aircraft on wildfires in the central region of the country where 62 people have died in the runaway flames.
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