PARIS, France, June 25, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - At least 101 million Europeans were 
forecast to swelter in temperatures of over 35C on Thursday, as scores of 
people were thought to have been killed by the heatwave.

France and Spain, among the countries worst hit, began counting the toll from 
the extreme temperatures, including a three-year-old boy who got trapped in 
his family's car.

AFP calculations based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 
population projections from the European Joint Research Centre indicated that 
more than 380 million people would face temperatures of over 30C.

The UN's climate chief Simon Stiell said the heatwave -- made worse by 
buildings and infrastructure unsuited to such temperatures -- "has the 
fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it".

"Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, extreme 
heat will keep getting worse," he added.

The deputy director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha 
Burgess, said the hot weather was due to a "heat dome" of trapped air from 
north Africa in a low-lying high-pressure system, preventing cooler air from 
moving in.

"While heat domes are a natural weather phenomenon, anthropogenic climate 
change is making heatwaves more severe and more likely to reach record-
breaking temperatures," she added.

- Scores of deaths -

In Spain, where new temperature records have been set for June, the MoMo 
monitoring system of mortality rates said 212 deaths between Sunday and 
Wednesday could be linked to the heat.

Three deaths in northern France's Pas-de-Calais region were "likely" caused 
by the heat while a prosecutor said a three-year-old boy was found dead in a 
car in the suburbs of Paris, where temperatures topped 40C on Wednesday.

Two other children died in similar circumstances in France this week.

In Paris, 25 cardiac arrests were recorded over 24 hours on Wednesday, 
compared with fewer than 10 usually, Health Minister Stephanie Rist's office 
said.

At the national level, she said a fourfold increase in emergency room visits 
for heat-related reasons had been recorded.

In Italy, courts in Palermo, Sicily, said they were suspending all non-urgent 
hearings until June 29 due to "malfunctioning air conditioning" while 
teaching unions in France called for strike action over "unacceptable working 
conditions".

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported five deaths from the heatwave 
including two farmworkers and a builder.

- Cooling off -

Dozens of people, from couples to families with babies, slept in hammocks and 
on camping mats at the Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris to beat the heat.