Salvador (Brazil) (AFP)

Impressive images of wildfires in the Amazon triggered a viral storm on social media while Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro insinuated that NGOs had sparked fires.

The far-right president has attacked NGOs in the wake of the publication of statistics reporting an alarming increase in forest fires in Brazil, especially in the Amazon.

Monday, Sao Paulo (southeast), the first metropolis in the country, had been covered in the middle of the afternoon of a black cloud apparently due to forest fires thousands of kilometers away.

On Twitter, the keyword #PrayforAmazonas (Pray for the Amazon) was the first global trend Wednesday at 15:40 GMT, with 249,000 tweets.

Many Internet users were indignant by posting photos and videos showing whole areas of forest devoured by curtains of flames.

"Sixteen days that the Amazon rainforest is burning and no one is aware," lamented a user. "Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere," another was indignant.

But some Internet users warned against images that would be old.

It was not possible to assess Wednesday the extent of areas affected by forest fires in the Amazon.

- "It's the war" -

The hashtag was also at the top of the ranking on the social network in Brazil, followed by the hashtag "ONGs", following the statements of Jair Bolsonaro.

The president has hinted that NGOs may have caused the fires to "draw attention" to Brasilia's suspension of subsidies for the preservation of the "lung of the planet".

"It could be, yes, it could, but I do not affirm it, criminal actions of these + ONGéistes + to draw attention against my person, against the Brazilian government.This is the war to which we are confronted, "the head of state told reporters in Brasilia.

Forest fires have increased 83% since the beginning of this year in Brazil compared to the whole of 2018, announced Tuesday the INPE, an official institute. The rise was particularly alarming in the states wholly or partly occupied by the Amazon rainforest, like that of Mato Grosso (center-west), with 13,682 fire starts (+ 87%).

Jair Bolsonaro has not provided any evidence to support his serious involvement of NGOs, but said that they "feel the lack of money" after the suspension of funding.

"We took the money out of the NGOs, they received 40% of the grants coming from abroad, they no longer have them, and the public subsidies" to NGOs, "he explained.

"The fire, apparently, has taken place in strategic locations," he insisted. "Even you could not go filming in all the places where it burns, and send (your videos) abroad," he told reporters.

"Because everything indicates that they went there to shoot fires, that's how I feel."

- Avalanche of critics -

Fires in Amazonia are usually caused by slash-and-burn clearings used to convert forest areas into crop and livestock areas or to clear previously deforested areas, usually during the dry season that ends in two months. According to the INPE, deforestation in July was almost four times higher in the same month of 2018.

Jair Bolsonaro is the target of an avalanche of criticism from scientists, conservation NGOs in the Amazon and indigenous populations for his support to the development of agriculture and mining, especially in protected areas.

The two main contributors to the Amazon Fund, Norway and Germany, have recently announced that they will suspend their grants to this fund, which helps finance the preservation of the forest, because of the positions of the Brazilian president.

Mr. Bolsonaro made such controversial comments when climate change week was being held in Salvador de Bahia with some 3,000 delegates from 26 countries, a regional meeting on climate change coordinated by the UN.

"The cloud that has covered Sao Paulo is a phenomenon already observed in 2010 and 2017," said Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who is present in Salvador. "But anyway we are concerned," he admitted.

© 2019 AFP