Millions of people across Europe – particularly in France, Italy, Spain and Britain – baked through a new wave of extreme temperatures on Thursday as the continent's latest heatwave picked up.

More than 135 million people were forecast to face temperatures above 35C, with Britain recording its fifth-hottest day on record and parts of France soaring past 42C.

"The heat has been unbearable here, honestly," said pharmacist Bailey Williamson, voicing concern for hospital patients as Britain sweltered.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent and in some places is ill-equipped to deal with hot weather. Scientists blame ever hotter and more frequent heatwaves on human-caused climate change.

Repeat heatwaves and drought have fuelled a historically hot summer of wildfires, and contributed to the deaths of thousands of people.

In London, temperatures hit 38.1C at Kew Gardens, making it the fifth-hottest day on record for Britain, according to official weather agency the Met Office.

Williamson, 20, who works for the National Health Service (NHS), said the heat was hitting hospital patients hard. "People in beds are really, really sick, and they can't even breathe because of the heat problem – so it's really bad," he said.

Hospitals had recorded an increase in heat stroke cases, and the NHS was struggling to keep up, he added.

"It's scary," Williamson said of the heatwaves. "I think it's a real sign about how bad climate change has really got."

In France, temperatures climbed even higher, with weather service Meteo-France recording 42.5C in Chateaumeillant in central France, the country's highest reading on Thursday. Paris hit 38C and much of the country was under a heatwave alert.

In Italy, similar temperatures were forecast to affect 29 million people, particularly along the west coast, in the Po Valley, the south and on Italy's islands.

Large parts of the Iberian Peninsula also sweltered, with around 25 million people affected in Spain. The country's Aemet weather agency recorded temperatures of 37C in central regions on Thursday.

In the UK, temperatures also reached 36C or higher in 40 locations across central and southern England. The country is on track to record its hottest ever summer, the Met Office said this week.

The heatwave has fanned wildfires across Europe. In northern Greece, hundreds of tourists were evacuated by boat as a forest fire bore down on two popular resorts, while crews in central England's West Midlands region battled blazes damaging homes amid drought conditions. (AFP)



Edited by Cecil Wong