Street sweeper dies and pensioners told to shelter in swimming pools over deadly heatwave
Temperatures in the UK have not reached the highs seen in Europe but an amber alert for extreme heat, in place since Friday, remains in five regions.
In Rome, over 70s will be given free access to swimming pools and over 75s will be offered guided tours of museums and public buildings free of charge in Venice as authorities seek to keep pensioners out of the sweltering heat.
Seven 'climate shelters' with air conditioning have also been established in Bologna, while ambulances have been placed on standby at tourist hotspots across southern Europe.
The initiatives were rolled out as extreme heat alerts were put in place across 21 Italian cities, including Naples, Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan.
In the regions of Sicily and Liguria, outdoor working has also been banned during the hottest parts of the day.
The extreme heat is expected to last until the middle of week, with temperatures set to rise further in France, Germany, Italy and the UK in the coming days.
The heat has been building under an area of high pressure, with dry air descending and causing temperatures to increase.
With the UK amber alert comes warnings of travel disruption across the East Midlands, South East, South West, London and the East of England.
Parts of the UK could see one of the hottest days in June ever on Monday, with temperatures of up to 34C forecast in central and eastern parts of England.
Glastonbury Festival urged attendees to leave early on Monday morning to avoid the hottest temperatures, while Wimbledon could experience its hottest ever opening day.
Since 1960, UK temperatures in June have only surpassed 34C in three years, the hottest being the 35.6C that was recorded on June 28 in 1976.
Thomas Goodall, the London Fire Brigade's assistant commissioner, warned that the capital was 'already facing its second heatwave of the year' and that the city was at 'severe' risk of wildfires because of a lack of rain.
He said: 'As the weather has been so dry, it only takes a few sparks to lead to a fire spreading rapidly. In London, this can be dangerous because so many of our green spaces lie close to homes and other properties.'
On Sunday, El Granado in Huelva, southern Spain, hit 46C, according to the country's national weather service, which also forecast the hottest June on record.
In Barcelona, a female street sweeper in her 50s died after completing her shift over the weekend and a 34-year-old Dutch tourist died from heatstroke while hiking with friends last week in Majorca.
Meanwhile, emergency departments across Italy reported around a 10 per cent increase in heatstroke cases, Mario Guarino, the vice-president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine, said.
He added: 'It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue.'
Hospitals, including the Ospedale dei Colli in Naples, have set up dedicated heatstroke pathways to fast track patients' access to treatments such as cold-water immersion, Mr Guarino added.
The extreme temperatures have also been felt elsewhere in Europe, with wildfires sweeping through the Greek coastal towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari on Thursday, destroying homes and forcing more than 1,000 people to evacuate.
Strong winds and sky-high temperatures made the fire extremely difficult to contain, with 11 tourists needing to be rescued from a beach, authorities said.
The extreme heat has also spread across the western Balkans, where temperatures have peaked above 40C.
Serbia recorded its highest-ever temperatures since it began recording in the 19th century, while the hottest-ever June temperature was recorded in Slovenia on Saturday.
Firefighters mobilised in France and Turkey on Sunday as wildfires started spreading.
In Turkey, forest fires broke out in the western Izmir province, fed by strong winds. Five neighbourhoods in the Seferihisar district had to be evacuated.
Helicopters, fire extinguishing aircraft and other vehicles, and more than a thousand people, were trying to extinguish the fires, Ibrahim Yumakli, the forestry minister, told reporters in Izmir.
In France, wildfires broke out in the Corbieres area of Aude in the south-west, where temperatures topped 40 degrees, forcing the evacuation of a campsite and abbey as a precaution.
Last week, Greek firefighters had to battle a forest blaze on the coast south of Athens that forced some evacuations.
Scientists have warned that climate change is playing a critical role in the heatwaves sweeping across Europe, especially in cities where the 'urban heat island' effect means temperatures are amplified among tightly packed buildings.
Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, said: 'The heatwaves in the Mediterranean region have become more frequent and more intense in recent years, with peaks of 37 degrees or even more in cities, where the urban heat island effect raises the temperatures even further.
'A further increase in temperature and heat extremes is expected in the future, so we will have to get used to temperatures with peaks even higher than those we are experiencing now,' she added.
In 2003, more than 70,000 people died during an extreme heatwave in Europe, a disproportionate number of whom were over 75.
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