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More than 20 people were today feared to have died in devastating wildfires in Portugal and Spain’s north-west Galicia region.

Portuguese authorities said overnight that six people had been killed, but later reports said the number of dead numbered at least 20

A 19-year-old pregnant woman was among those killed as she struck another car while trying to flee flames in one of 500 forest fires across Portugal.

Strong winds brought in by the tail-end of Hurricane Ophelia and high temperatures provided the perfect scenario for the spread of the fires, most of which are thought to have been deliberately started.

Respected daily Correio da Manha said at least 20 had died in different parts of the country’s central region.

At least three people died in Spain, including two women trapped in their van in Nigran 10 miles south of the city of Vigo yesterday.

Galician President Alberto Nunez Feijoo described the situation as “critical” as 17 fires near populated areas in the region remained active this morning (MON) after a weekend with more than 200 separate blazes.

Claiming firefighters had been tackling “homicide incendiary activity”, he said: “We are dealing with deliberately-started fires by people who know what to burn, how to burn it and the places to pick.”

Distressing footage showed panicked locals driving along smoke-filled roads with walls of flames either side.

In the coastal resort town of Baiona in southern Galicia, people were filmed abandoning their homes as they were surrounded by fire.

The city of Vigo, where locals in a human chain were pictured using buckets of water to tackle flames encroaching on their houses, was one of the worst affected.

Several schools there cancelled classes today (MON) with the University of Vigo suspending all activity because of the “emergency situation”.

Police tweeted alongside a video of a motorcyclist racing away from a wildfire approaching a normally-busy roundabout: “Galicia is burning and silence is complicit with those who burn it. If you know who did it, ring the emergency number and tell us.”

Some of the fires affecting Spain’s north-west region crossed the border from Portugal, which suffered its worst day of the year so far bringing back memories of the wildfires in June which killed 64 people including several children, most in the central town of Pedrogao Grande.

Four people were injured on the A25 in Vouzela near the city of Viseu in Portugal’s central region in a head-on collision which happened after a motorist drove the wrong way to escape one of the blazes.

Thirty-three of the 523 wildfires, a record number this year, were described as large.

Nearly 6,000 people were mobilised to tackle the flames.

Two people died in Penacova near the university city of Coimbra, another two in Oliveira do Hospital a 45-minute drive east and one each in Serta and Nelas.

Portuguese PM Antonio Costa admitted: “I hope there are no more deaths, but there are a lot of people injured and still unaccounted for.”