"They are both aware, cooperative, talking to the teams that are accompanying them, without major concerns", said Rui Garcia, head of the emergency team at the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC), in statements to journalists about the incident which left one dead and five injured, two seriously and three lightly, at Campo Militar de Santa Margarida, in Constância, in the district of Santarém.

The clinician assured that the two military personnel transported by helicopter to Coimbra were not affected by eye injuries.

“[The situation] is not so serious for now”, stressed Rui Garcia.

The Army has opened an investigation process into the "inadvertent explosion" that occurred during an operation to deactivate explosives.

In a statement, the Army said that an "inadvertent explosion" occurred at around 16:40 on 2 March, during an operation to deactivate explosive devices, which was being carried out by a deactivation team from the N.º 1 Engineering Regiment "for the destruction of ammunition and explosives and rockets".

The operation was carried out "in the scope of the Planning and Management of the Instruction Areas, Shooting Infrastructures and Training Infrastructures of the Military Camp of Santa Margarida", reads the note.

The commander of the Volunteer Fire Department of Constância told journalists that the incident occurred when a machine was deactivating explosives, which was destroyed.

Marco Gomes explained that, after the Army maneuvers, for safety reasons, teams are mobilised to inert explosives that may not have been detonated.

“The military does operational training with explosive charges and it is a standard procedure that did not go as desired. [The incident occurred when a] machine was operating and burying all the explosives which resulted in a fatality”, he stressed.

“It's a machine with a bucket, a normal machine with the capacity to transport earth, it was weakened. The machine operator was one of the victims who went to Coimbra by air”, he added.

The commander of the Constância Volunteer Firefighters also added that the fatal victim was 47 years old and was one of the explosive inactivation team.

The military branch has also announced that an investigation process has been opened and that the Military Judiciary Police (PJM) has taken care of the incident.