Portuguese official denies earlier report of plane crash

The Portuguese Civil Protection Operational Commander Vaz Pinto denied that a Canadair plane crashed while battling forest fire in central Portugal on Tuesday.

A plane battles a fire from the air after a wildfire took dozens of lives on June 19, 2017 near Pedrogao Grande, in Leiria district, Portugal. [Photo: VCG]

He told reporters that he was not aware of any aircraft that has crashed as reported earlier in the day.

He said there might have been explosion of a hot-dog stand, which was thought to be a plane crash.

Firefighters and planes are battling raging forest fires in the area around Pedrogao Grande, some 150 km northeast of Lisbon after huge forest fires erupted on Saturday, which have killed 64 people and injured 160 others.