Seven deaths in France linked to record-high temperatures as heatwave continues

Jon Henley

Europe correspondent

Seven people have died in France in an extreme early-summer heat event that is affecting a swathe of western Europe, as France and the UK set record highs for May and temperatures were forecast to rise further on Tuesday.

“What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat,” a French government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told TF1 television, adding that five of the deaths were by drowning.

Météo France, the national weather agency, said Monday’s highest reading, 37.1C, was recorded near Hossegor, in the south-western department of Les Landes, and that temperatures across the west of the country could exceed 36C on Tuesday.

It said Monday was “the hottest day measured for the month of May since records began”, with the national average temperature, measured at 30 stations across the country, hitting 24.4C, compared with a previous high of 23.7C in 1944.

The UK’s Met Office said Monday was the country’s hottest May day on record, with temperatures hitting 34.8C at Kew Gardens, south-west London, a reading it described as “exceptional in the UK even in mid-summer, let alone May”.

In Spain, widespread highs of 36-38C in the Guadiana, Guadalquivir and Ebro valleys were expected to continue possibly until Friday, the state weather service, Aemet, said, adding that “in some of those areas, temperatures could reach 40C”.