Residents of the white-walled village of Alportel scrambled to pack belongings into plastic bags and suitcases as they fled their homes which were lit up in an orange glow by the surrounding flames, images on state television RTP showed.

"The situation has turned to complete chaos," the mayor of the nearby city of Sao Braz de Alportel, Antonio Eusebio, told the station.

"There are houses already burning in Alportel, people are being evacuated, there is a feeling of complete impotence in the face of the fire."

Eusebio said up to 600 people lived in the village of Alportel, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) south of Lisbon, and the elderly and children were being evacuated first.

More than 500 firefighters aided by 60 soldiers were battling the blaze with the aid of water-dropping aircraft and more than 150 water trucks.

Dozens of homes and thousands of hectares (acres) of land have been destroyed by flames in a wave of wildfires that has swept Portugal since the weekend when temperatures soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in much of the country.

TERRA.WIRE