The Portuguese government said it had never destroyed so many weapons, especially fire arms a tone time before.

They said that the weapons came from seizures, but also voluntary deliveries an d administrative processes and that none of them had any museum, scientific, training or operational interest and that they would be recycled.

The police said that most of the weapons were hunting guns, because of the tradition in Portugal, but there were also military weapons such as pistols, revolvers, crossbows and a machine pistol.