At least seven people have died after wildfires in the Aveiro and Viseu areas of Portugal, although cooler weather has helped tackle the flames. Dozens of homes have been destroyed and tens of thousands of hectares of forest and scrubland have been lost to the flames.

Portuguese national police said that they have arrested seven men suspected of having started wildfires in recent days. Authorities have prohibited the use of heavy farming equipment to reduce the risk of inadvertently starting a blaze.

The wildfires that have been raging in Portugal have already affected some 106,000 hectares, or 1,060 square kilometres, of land after roughly four days, state news agency LUSA reported on Wednesday,

By Pedro Nunes and Silvio Castellanos NELAS, Portugal (Reuters) -Three Portuguese firefighters died on Tuesday in one of dozens of forest blazes ravaging the country's central and northern regions, bringing the death toll from the latest wildfires to seven people since Saturday,

More than 5,000 firefighters are battling major wildfires in Portugal. Strong winds and heat last weekend fuelled fires across the north and centre of the country. At least seven people have died, while dozens of buildings have been destroyed.