The top floor of the Eiffel Tower has been closed, with temperatures in Paris set to hit 39C as most of France swelters in a heatwave due to peak on Tuesday.
A nuclear power station has been temporarily shut down to avoid overheating and nearly 1,350 schools are closed. Sixteen of France’s mainland departments, including the Paris area, are on red alert. Another 68 are on orange, the second-highest level, as the country battles to protect itself from the worst effects of the heatwave.
Trains between France and Italy have been suspended “for several days at least” after violent storms and mudslides caused by the extreme heat, SNCF, the French state-owned rail company, said.
Traffic restrictions have been imposed, banning the most polluting vehicles from the roads, and speed limits as low as 20km/h (12.5mph) have been introduced in some areas to try to limit pollution.
Residents have been advised to work from home if they can and to avoid driving. Tourists visiting the lower floors of the Eiffel Tower have been warned to protect themselves from the sun and stay hydrated.
It was reported on Monday that the temperature at the peak of Mont Blanc had risen above freezing in June for the first time, according to the national meteorological agency, threatening to cause snow and ice to melt.
Temperatures as high as 41C are expected in southern France, but Météo France, the national meteorological agency, forecast that they would begin to fall gradually from Wednesday.
The Mediterranean Sea recorded a new June high water temperature of 26.01C on Sunday, according to French weather service scientist Thibault Guinaldo.
Elsewhere, Portugal was expecting some respite after record highs of 46C were recorded over the weekend, but temperatures were still expected to reach 40C in central parts of the country. Wildfires continued to burn across Turkey.
Similar temperatures in the high 30s to mid-40s were forecast in Spain after they soared to 46C in the south at the weekend.
The authorities are investigating whether a street sweeper’s death over the weekend in Barcelona was caused by the heatwave, the city council said. The woman, who had been cleaning the old town on Saturday afternoon, died later that day at home, her sister told the Antena 3 TV station.
• Roll clouds in Portugal and wildfires in Turkey: what’s behind the heatwave?
The 51-year-old woman, identified only as Montserrat, had told a colleague she thought she was dying, her sister said. Temperatures reached 30.4C in Barcelona on Saturday.
There were torrential rains in the north of Italy on Monday. Near Bologna, one of the cities under a heat alert, the 46-year-old owner of a construction company collapsed and died while repaving a school car park, RAI reported. There were also reports that a 70-year-old greengrocer had died after torrential rain in the alpine town of Bardonecchia, Piedmont. Alberto Cirio, the regional president, said that a “water bomb” had hit the town.
Red alerts have been issued for 18 Italian cities in the coming days, including Rome, Milan, Verona, Perugia and Palermo, as well as across the Adriatic on the Croatian coast and Montenegro.
Forest fires continued to rage in the western Izmir region of Turkey and cross the country. The minister of agriculture and forestry, Ibrahim Yumakli, described the battle against the fires as a war against a relentless enemy fuelled by strong winds.
“You are fighting against an enemy that never sleeps and never rests. You are creating your own defence. The erratic blowing of the wind disrupts our plan,” he said. He added that fire services had intervened in 263 fires in three days.
More than 50,000 people have been evacuated to safe zones in Izmir, a popular travel destination for British tourists, as well as in Bilecik in the northwest and Hatay in the south.
Yumaki said that fires in Bodrum, another popular tourist region, as well as in Aydin, Bigadic and Bursa had been brought under control. Another fire was reported in the resort city of Antalya, which was also brought under control.
