Scores killed in inferno:

At least 64 people were killed in central Portugal this week, and more than 130 injured, in the country’s worst forest fires in living memory. The initial blaze – believed to have been sparked by a lightning strike in a dry thunderstorm, during a fierce heatwave – began on Saturday in the mountainous region of Pedrógão Grande, northeast of the capital. It then spread with shocking speed across the region. About half of those killed were trapped in their cars on the N236 road through a densely forested area between Figueiró dos Vinhos and Castanheira de Pêra. Other victims were found dead close to their vehicles, having attempted to flee on foot. About 1,600 firefighters, backed up by planes and helicopters, were working to contain the fires this week, as Portugal declared three days of national mourning.

The tragedy has raised a national debate over whether broader, institutional failings and social changes were to blame for the horrifically high death toll. Emergency services have been criticised for not closing the “road of death” more quickly. A leading green lobby group, Quercus, said “forest management errors and bad political decisions” over decades had played a part – in particular, a failure to stop the highly flammable eucalyptus from becoming Portugal’s dominant species of tree. Others pointed to the depopulation of rural villages, which has left many wooded areas untended.