Western Europe sizzles in heatwave with Italy hitting 37°C

ITV News Correspondent Martha Fairlie reports on the effects of the record breaking heatwave that has swept across much of Europe

Temperatures have exceeded 30°C in Western Europe as a blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea brought much of the continent its first heatwave of the summer.

In the UK, temperatures soared above 32°C as the UK recorded the hottest day of the year so far, for the third day in a row.

As Britons basked in the sun, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issued a Level 3 heat-health alert for London, the East of England and the South East in order to protect health services.

By mid-morning in Rome temperatures were at 33°C and by midday temperatures were up to 37°C. According to Italy's Civil Protection, an orange heat alert, the second-highest level, was issued on Friday for many Italian cities like Turin, Perugia, Florence and Brescia. It warned of the risks to the elderly, children and pregnant women, who are the most vulnerable.

In Rome, tourists continued to visit the city, but stopped by fountains to fill water bottles and cool down.

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By the weekend, temperatures could reach 38 degrees in Italy.

Meteorologists say the unusually early heatwave is a sign of what's to come as global warming continues, moving up in the calendar the temperatures that Europe would previously have seen only in July and August.

In France, some 18 million people woke to heatwave alerts affecting about a third of the country on Friday.

Forest fire warnings were issued from the Pyrenees in the south to the Paris region.

Tourists dunked their feet in fountains near the Eiffel Tower or sought relief in the Mediterranean.

France has introduced numerous measures to cope with extreme summer temperatures following a deadly heat wave in 2003 that killed about 15,000 people.

On Friday, schoolchildren were allowed to skip classes in the 12 western and southwestern French regions that were under the highest alert.

The government stepped up efforts to ensure nursing home residents and other vulnerable populations could stay hydrated.

Temperatures in France have mounted all week and passed 37 degrees in the southwest Friday.

Nighttime temperatures are also unusually high and the heat is stretching to normally cooler regions in Brittany and Normandy on the Atlantic Coast.

A climatologist at national weather service Meteo France told public broadcaster France-Info that temperatures are expected to break several records, linking it to climate change.