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Brazil's Bolsonaro blames Amazon fires on NGOs as Twitter erupts

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AFP Salvador
Last Updated : Aug 22 2019 | 3:00 AM IST

Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes.

Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world's largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. #PrayforAmazonas is the top trending hashtag in the world on Wednesday, with more than 249,000 tweets.

"No matter how successful we are, if our Earth dies, we all die," posted one Twitter user.

Another wrote: "Send your prayers to the Amazon and to the planet, we will need it."
"This is the war that we are facing," Bolsonaro told reporters. "The fires were lit in strategic places. All the indications suggest they went there to film and start fires. That's what I feel."

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First Published: Aug 22 2019 | 3:00 AM IST

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