More than 100 wildfires stretched thousands of firefighters to the limit in northern Portugal on Wednesday, with seven deaths since the worst spate of fires in recent years spread out of control over the weekend.

Firefighters tackling deadly wildfires in central and northern Portugal had doused the flames in the Aveiro district, one of the worst-hit, as of Thursday, and were focusing on eight large blazes still raging elsewhere.

The EU will send eight firefighting planes to Portugal to help the country tackle blazes in its north that have injured 12 firefighters, two seriously. Several fires broke out in the Aveiro region over the weekend, which have forced about 70 residents to flee, the civil protection authority has said.