Portugal Safety and Security Report Wednesday 1st October 2025
Good afternoon. When reviewing our Facebook performance on this, our main page, we found that in the 28 days up to yesterday our posts during that period obtained a total 7,599,645 views. This represented a 149% growth on the previous 28 day period. Two of our highest views were both on 27th September, one being the approach of Gabrielle which obtained 795,203 views and earlier in the day, when a post on the forecast of wind speed and precautions to take, obtained 564,377 views. This shows that our key messages concerning risk awareness and preparedness for hazards are reaching a high number of people, which is important in ensure people are aware and can plan accordingly. In can be life-saving in some situations!
After the passing of Gabrielle, you would be right in asking, will there be more of the same this year? The answer is most likely “yes”.
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, and will end on November 30. After a slow start, there has recently been back-to-back tropical cyclones expected to whip up the Atlantic Ocean and produce dangerous waves.
But it is not only waves that we should be concerned about. The second issue is how the close passing or a direct hit on the mainland would have if we were experiencing active wild fires at the time, as was the case in October 2017.
Gabrielle hit the Azores as a Hurricane Category 1, causing nearly 200 occurrences, but soon lost strength, eventually arriving on the mainland as a post tropical cyclone. By this time the wind speeds had decreased considerably, but still on 27th September there was a wind gust of almost 100 km/h recorded.
A week earlier the fire in Aljezur was burning with intensity to the point where the fire commander stated “that it had reached a level at which it was out of control and beyond the capacity of resources, both on the ground and in the air to extinguish”. This begs the question what would have been the effect if the tropical cyclone had arrived a week earlier and had not lost its intensity! Read more about this in our feature in the Portugal Resident out tomorrow Thursday.
Once again Spain has been hardest hit by Gabrielle. Yesterday the Army UME emergencies unit has been activated in Ibiza due to a torrential rain storm Red level warnings in place. The Emergency Department sent an alert message via the EsAlert system to all mobile phones in Ibiza and Formentera, warning of the risk of flooding and urging the public to avoid travel and flood-prone areas, not to stay in basements and to go to upper floors in case of flooding.
AEMET maintains the red level warning in Ibiza and Formentera, where up to 200 millimetres of rain have accumulated in some areas. The storms, initially centred on Ibiza, have moved towards Formentera.
In an unprecedented operation in Galicia, Spain: police officers intercepted a large shipment of cocaine delivered to the coast by a narco-submarine. The operation resulted in the arrest of 14 people involved in unloading and further distribution of the drugs. The total weight of the seized cargo was approximately 3.5 tons.
The drugs landed on September 13, prompting a coastal chase. Officers intercepted one vehicle carrying cocaine bales. Local police found the remaining cargo the next morning. This is the first time such a seizure has taken place on land in Spain. Another example of excellent co-operation on this occasion by the Spanish police and the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
Our team wish you a nice week ahead.
News
Six deaths and more than 7,700 incidents of domestic violence in three months
In the second quarter of this year alone, six people died, comprising five women and one man, as victims of homicide in the context of domestic violence.
Six people died between April and June 2025, while the PSP and GNR recorded 7,713 incidents, 657 more than in the previous quarter, according to data released this Monday.
According to data from the Domestic Violence Portal, managed by the Commission for Equality and Citizenship (CIG), in the second quarter of this year, six people died, including five women and one man, as victims of homicide in the context of domestic violence.
In total, since the beginning of the year, 13 people have died as a result of domestic violence, the majority of whom (11) were women.
In the same period, PSP and GNR reported 7,713 incidents, a number 9.3% above the 7,056 complaints registered in the first quarter of this year, but 0.3% below the same period in 2024 .
Regarding support measures for victims of domestic violence, there were 5,939 people with tele assistance measures, 81 more than in the first quarter of 2025.
On the other hand, there were 1,401 people welcomed into the National Support Network for Victims of Domestic Violence (RNAVVD), including 733 women, 643 children and 25 men .
There was a need to transport victims in 231 situations, totalling 392 people, including 229 women, 160 children and two men.
In the second quarter of 2025, there were 1,461 inmates serving sentences for the crime of domestic violence, including 395 in preventive detention and 1,066 serving effective sentences.