Between Sunday afternoon and Tuesday six soldiers on the army’s Commandos course had to be seen by the Armed Forces hospital due to overheating.
Five returned to training and one was kept in hospital under observation, on Sunday, but his condition is not believed to be life-threatening.
Also on Sunday, 20-year-old quartermaster Hugo Abreu died after being diagnosed with heatstroke.
He was removed from training after feeling unwell during shooting practice and taken to the camp’s infirmary, in Alcochete, to be kept under observation.
His clinical situation reportedly worsened after dinner time, and he went into cardiac arrest shortly before he was due to be transferred to a hospital.
Speaking to newspaper Diário de Notícias, Army Major General Carlos Branco, former head of the Commandos Course, dismissed suggestions that the young soldier’s death could have been caused by “tough teaching”, based on the information available.
He said he has ordered an inquiry into how the “tragic incident happened”, with the military PJ police heading the investigation.
On Monday, Portugal’s Defence Minister expressed his “deepest condolences” over the soldier’s death, and gave the young man’s family his “personal solidarity and that of the Government in this moment of pain and suffering.”
The army said that, despite the death, training would continue albeit adapted to the hot weather forecast for the beginning of this week.
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a statement on the President’s official website that “having learned of the death of a Commando Course participant, I give my deepest condolences to the family of the soldier who perished at the service of Portugal.”