A total of 2,061 firefighters were working on eight major wildfires on Monday afternoon as blazes continued to burn for a second day across central Portugal.

Spain's Military Emergency Unit deployed 116 firefighters and 26 vehicles to Portugal after the government activated the European Civil Protection protocol on Saturday get help from its neighbours as a precautionary measure.

Exceptionally dry and hot weather ignited Portugal's worst fires in memory early this summer, killing 64 people. Fires have continued to flare up in recent weeks with the arrival of an even hotter spell of weather.

More than 140,000 hectares of forest have burned this summer in Portugal, more than three times the average over the last 10 years, according to European Union data.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.