More than 100 million Europeans endured temperatures exceeding 35°C on Thursday, as a deadly heatwave continued to grip the continent, claiming scores of lives and overwhelming emergency services.

France and Spain bore the brunt of the extreme weather, with authorities beginning to count the human toll. Among the victims was a three-year-old boy found dead after becoming trapped in his family’s car in the Paris suburbs, where temperatures topped 40°C on Wednesday.

Calculations based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 population projections from the European Joint Research Centre indicated more than 380 million people faced temperatures exceeding 30°C across the continent.

Climate crisis fingerprints

Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said the heatwave bore “the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it”, made worse by buildings and infrastructure unsuited to such extreme temperatures.

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

Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, attributed the hot weather 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 said.

Death toll mounts

In Spain, where new temperature records were set for June, the MoMo monitoring system indicated 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, authorities said. Two other children died in similar car-related circumstances in France this week.

Paris recorded 25 cardiac arrests over 24 hours on Wednesday, compared with fewer than 10 usually, according to Health Minister Stephanie Rist’s office. At the national level, emergency room visits for heat-related reasons increased fourfold.

In Italy, Corriere della Sera reported five deaths from the heatwave, including two farmworkers and a builder. Courts in Palermo, Sicily, suspended all non-urgent hearings until 29 June due to “malfunctioning air conditioning”.

Teaching unions in France called for strike action over “unacceptable working conditions”.

Seeking relief

Dozens of people slept in hammocks and on camping mats at the Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris to escape the heat.

Maissame Decosse (26) told AFP: “We’ve got everything we need, really. And quite a few people hang out here, so there’s a good atmosphere. It’s better to be here than indoors.”

Parisians flocked to the Canal Saint-Martin in the north of the city after authorities allowed swimming there due to the heat.

In Brussels, residents complained about the lack of public swimming facilities as temperatures nudged 40°C.

“It’s honestly a joke for a city like Brussels with more than a million residents,” said Paul Steinbruck, co-founder of the organisation Pool is Cool.

In Germany, where temperatures reached the high 30s and were expected to hit 40°C through the weekend, several outdoor events were cancelled. Rail operator Deutsche Bahn told customers to avoid travel due to a high risk of disruption from wildfires, heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Vulnerable at risk

The effects of extreme heat – from dehydration to heatstroke – posed particular concern for the very young and elderly.

At the Kingsley Court Care Home in Hayes, west London, staff handed out fruit juice and water to dementia patients in shaded garden areas.

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“When they’ve got dementia, they forget to ask about whether they feel thirsty,” said manager Shiny Mathappan.

Temperatures hit 36.4°C in Yeovilton, southwest England, on Thursday, making it the hottest June day on record, the Met Office weather service said.

London Ambulance Service reported the extreme heat on Wednesday led to the highest number of life-threatening emergency calls in a single day.

Lucine Nazikian (97), a Kingsley Court resident, said the world needed to take the heat seriously.

“Nature is angry with us because we destroy everything,” she said.

Temperatures were expected to fall in western Europe from Friday, but eastern Europe remained on red alert as temperatures climbed into the weekend.

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