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The official death toll from more than 500 separate blazes, 110 of them recorded after midnight yesterday, rose from six in the morning as rescuers reached villages razed by flames. A one-month-old baby reported missing was found dead this afternoon afternoon - leaving seven people still unaccounted for last night as experts said the number of fatalities was bound to increase over the coming hours. Fifty-six people were injured in the wildfires in central and northern Portugal, 16 of them seriously. The mass tragedy happened nearly three months to the day after forest fires which broke out in the central town of Pedrogao Grande killed 64 people and injured more than 250.

Yesterday’s total of 523 separate blazes in a single day marked a black record so far this year in Portugal, prompting a new round of national soul-searching amid criticism of fire prevention systems and the response of Civil Protection leaders and government chiefs. Portugal’s Interior Minister Constanca Urbano de Souza rejected calls she should resign, insisting going would be an easier option so she could enjoy the summer holidays she never had but now “was a time for action and not reaction.” She spoke out as survivors relived their close brushes with death and astonishing footage emerged on social media showing the nightmare experiences of those caught up in the drama. Survivor Renato Teixeira, from Coimbra, posted a video of his near escape on the A17 motorway near Vagos an hour’s drive south of Porto alongside the message: “Today luck was on my side. I was dying.”

EPA More than 4,000 hectares of forest are on fire in Galicia due to high temperatures and drought

Deadly wildfires spread across Portugal and Spain Mon, October 16, 2017 Several forest fires are active in Galicia burning more than 4,000 hectares, and they are aggravated with high temperatures and drought Play slideshow EPA 1 of 12 Firefighters try to extinguish a forest fire close to the village of Constante, in Galicia, northwestern Spain

The extraordinary footage showed him wincing with pain at the heat from the flames on either side of the smoke-filled motorway as he filmed burning tolls booths on the opposite carriageway and tried to pluck up the courage to continue driving as he shouted to himself ‘Don’t stop, don’t stop’ and resorted to deep breathing to combat his stress. Friend Catarina Costa wrote: “A few minutes more and I don’t think anyone would have got down that road.” Well-wisher Marcos Grazina said: “I drove along that stretch of motorway minutes before you and asked a friend who works for the National Civil Protection Authority to close it. “I found out after I called back that it had been shut. Thanks God no-one got hurt.” Passengers on a coach covering the route between Viseu and Coimbra in central Portugal told how they were surrounded by flames and had to abandon the vehicle near Penacova where two people died with the help of firefighters.

EPA A fire burns near homes in Chandebrito village, Galicia, Spain

We are dealing with deliberately-started fires by people who know what to burn, how to burn it and the places to pick Alberto Nunez Feijoo

Ema Fonseca, a university student who was returning to Coimbra for lessons, said: “The coach was full with some 48 people on board. “Suddenly everything went black and a few miles afterwards all we saw were flames. The heat inside the coach was unbearable. We began to shout and the coach began to shake. I thought I was going to die.” Mafalda Lirio, a passenger on the same coach, dubbed driver Eduardo Donas Boto a hero after revealing how he drove through a wall of fire to help them reach safety. She wrote on Facebook alongside a picture of passengers sat just inches from flames engulfing trees: “Tonight was the most horrible and frightening night of my life. “Around 6.30pm on route from Viseu to Coimbra, we were confronted by a wall of flames."

EPA A firefighter battles to extinguish a fire in Vigo, Galicia

She continued: “Unable to turn round, our driver Eduardo Donas Boto made an incredibly brave choice for which all his passengers will be eternally grateful. “He had two choices; staying there and waiting for the flames to burn us to death or heading straight for the wall of fire and that’s what he did.. “Despite the panic we quickly felt, the flames that were passing over our heads and the hellish heat and lack of oxygen he continued to drive. “Shortly afterwards we found a group of two or three firefighters who were also surrounded by flames who ended up following us and alerted us to the fact our coach was on fire. “We were told to leave the vehicle and in their panic many people began to head in the direction of Coimbra without realising that’s where the worst part of the fire was. “Luckily we managed to find everyone that had got disorientated and and afterwards with the help of police reached a bridge where hundreds of other people were where we remained in safety for several hours sharing a half dozen bottles of water between the 50 or so coach passengers.” The casualties included a pregnant 19-year-old who died in a traffic accident while trying to flee flames. She lost her life after a terrified motorist reversed into the car she was in. Another woman aged around 40 was also reported to have been killed in the smash.

The one-month old baby, whose parents also died, became the 32nd fatality after being found following a search in Tabua near Coimbra. Pop star Madonna, currently living in Portugal, took to Instagram as the scale of the tragedy became clear to write: “The fires in Portugal and Spain have raged once again wreaking havoc and taking many lives. “Let us pray for the lives lost, for the wounded, for the sorrow of their families and finally for the devastation of Mother Nature.” Spain was also grieving today after wildfires in its north-west region of Galicia killed four people, two women who died when their a burning pine tree fell on their van and two men including a pensioner who lost his life trying to save his animals. Some of the fires, fuelled by high winds brought in by the tail-end of Hurricane Ophelia and high temperatures after a period of draught, crossed into Spain from Portugal.

EPA An exhausted fireman collapses after battling the fires