State of emergency: Raging wildfires kill at least 20 people in Portugal

At least 20 people have been killed in a wave of wildfires raging across Portugal in the past 48 hours, according to Lusa news agency.

Officials initially put the death toll at six and no one was immediately available to confirm the rising death toll, Reuters said.

This is the worst such tragedy since wildfires killed 64 people in June, civil protection officials say.

The government has declared a state of emergency in all the regions north of the Tagus river, a territory about half the size of continental Portugal.