British woman dies in France as country endures hottest day in history with temperatures soaring past 44C

A British woman has died in France as the country endures its hottest day in history with temperatures soaring past 44C.

The elderly woman from the UK collapsed at the Baie D'Aunis campsite in the west coast town of Tranche-sur-Mer yesterday.

She was with her husband staying at the campsite when she fell ill.

A three-year-old boy was found dead in a car yesterday in a Paris suburb after temperatures reached 41C in the French capital.

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The boy's parents found him unresponsive in the vehicle outside their home, roughly 45 minutes after he had told them he was feeling tired and they had sent him to bed.

He is believed to have locked himself in the car, though the precise circumstances remain unclear.

The number of children to have died in hot cars in France during the heatwave currently stands at three.

Two brothers aged four and two were found unresponsive by their mother on Monday in a car parked outside their grandmother's house in Carpentras, southern France.

Both children suffered a cardiac arrest as temperatures reached 40C - resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

At least 48 people have drowned across the European country since the heatwave began.

French authorities are urging the public to take additional care when entering unsupervised bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes.

French Ligue 2 footballer Kenzo Kies, 21, who played for Guingamp, died after getting into difficulty in the Rhone River near Lyon on Monday while attempting to cool down from the heat, the Daily Mail reports.

He was the last of four friends to be pulled from the water and died in hospital after being found in a critical condition.

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Yesterday, France recorded the hottest national average temperature since measurements began in 1947.

The average reached 30C across the country and the mercury, climbing past 44C in Pissos in the south west.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said deaths in the capital were rising, with the Ministry of Health later confirming 25 heat-related cardiac arrests in the city in the space of 24 hours.

The extreme heat has also caused three nuclear reactors to close as the high heat reduced access to the water required to cool the plants.

Closures were confirmed at Golfech, Nogent-sur-Seine and Bugey.

The extreme conditions are being driven by a weather phenomenon known as an Omega block.

Named after its resemblance to the Greek letter, it traps heat over regions for extended periods while pushing temperatures as much as 18C above normal.

The heatwave has also crossed the Channel, with the UK recording its hottest June day on record yesterday, with 36.1C reported at Gosport in Hampshire.

The temperature broke the previous June record set in 1976.

Red heat alerts were issued across much of central and southern England and Wales.

More than 1,000 schools in England have closed and widespread train cancellations have prompted passengers to avoid non-essential travel.

Weather agencies have warned the extreme heat could continue to endanger lives across western Europe as the heat dome shows little sign of dissipating in the coming days.

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