PARIS: France recorded its all-time hottest temperature of 44.3 degrees Celsius (111.7 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday as the country and much of Europe basked in an early summer heatwave, state weather forecaster Meteo-France said.
The temperature was recorded in the southeastern town of Carpentras and beat the previous record for France of 44.1 degrees Celsius recorded in Saint-Christol-les-Ales and Conqueyrac during the notorious August 2003 heatwave, Meteo-France, AFP reported.
Elsewhere in Spain, a 93-year-old man collapsed and died on the street in the northern city of Valladolid, police said, who gave heatstroke as the cause of death.
Heat-related deaths have also been reported in Italy, France and Germany, mainly among the elderly.
France was bracing for what could be the hottest day in its history on Friday — an extraordinary event for June.
Temperatures are forecast to reach 45 degrees Celsius in the south, beating the current record of 44.1 degrees dating to the catastrophic heatwave of August 2003.
That year, nearly 15,000 people are estimated to have died because of the heat, many of them elderly people at home.
The episode has caused every governments since to be extremely vigilant during heatwaves.
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