Fire over Vieira de Leiria, Portugal (Picture: Wenn)

The sky above Portugal looked like it was burning after a series of wildfires broke out in the country.

The frightening image was captured over Vieira de Leiria this week.

The picture emerged after wildfires killed 42 people over the weekend in Portugal and Spain.

That brought the total death toll caused by forest fires in the region to a record 106 people this year.

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A man fights with a forest fire in Vieira de Leiria, Marinha Grande, center of Portugal (Picture: EPA)
A burned car is seen in the middle of a forest destroyed by a wildfire in Vieira de Leiria (Picture: EPA)
A woman combats a forest fire in Vieira de Leiria (Picture: EPA)

Spanish officials had blamed arsonists and freak weather conditions for the infernos, with temperatures on the Iberian Peninsula exceeded 30 C (86 F) over the weekend.

The area was also hit by high winds as Hurricane Ophelia made its way past the Atlantic.

‘We are ready to extinguish fires, but we are not ready for arsonists,’ Spanish Environment and Agriculture Minister Isabel Garcia Tejerina told public broadcaster TVE.

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Men gather cattle during a forest fire (Picture: EPA)
Firefighters fight with a forest fire in Vieira de Leiria (Picture: EPA)

But in Portugal rival politicians and residents partly blamed the Government for apparently not being prepared.

This led to interior minister Constanca Urbano de Sousa resigning on Monday.

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People react as they look on damages caused by a forest fire in a camping park in Marinha Grande, Center of Portugal (Picture: EPA)
An old woman gathers wood in a burned area caused by a forest fire (Picture: EPA)
A man combats a forest fire on top of his house in Vieira de Leiria (Picture: EPA)

Ms De Sousa, the minister in charge of emergency services, had said she wanted to quit after 64 people were killed in a wildfire four months ago but Prime Minister Antonio Costa convinced her to stay.

Before she left she said she made policy changes that would make things work better on the ground in the future.

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