Britain ground to a halt in the heat again today with rail services cancelled leaving commuters stranded for hours and thousands of homes left without running water.

With temperatures forecast to climb as high as 33C, parts of the country appeared unable to cope as transport networks buckled and water companies urged families not to fill paddling pools.

Thousands of rail passengers faced chaos across swathes of southern England with rail companies blaming the weather for speed restrictions and fears rails could buckle in the heat.

Great Western Railway imposed an emergency speed restriction between Didcot Parkway and London Paddington, blaming ‘dangerously high track temperatures.’

But frustrated commuters were then stranded when all GWR services from Paddington due to stop at Slough, Maidenhead and Twyford were suddenly cancelled, seemingly for no reason.

Thousands of passengers travelling into London from Kent also faced hours of misery after a Eurostar train broke down near St Pancras International this morning.

More than 250 passengers travelling from Faversham were trapped inside a tunnel for almost four hours during the morning rush hour. One traveller missed an international flight, while dozens more failed to make onward Eurostar connections to Paris.

And households across Kent and East Sussex were left without water altogether after South East Water confirmed supply problems affecting more than 10,000 homes. Residents in Herne Bay, Ashford and Hastings were among those hit by outages as the company pleaded with customers to cut water use immediately.

Water firm bosses told families not to use paddling pools and avoid unnecessary water use in an effort to keep taps running. South East Water told customers to use water for ‘essential purposes only’, including drinking, washing and cooking.

Rail passengers faced chaos across large parts of southern England after soaring temperatures forced speed restrictions on tracks amid fears rails could buckle in the heat

With temperatures forecast to climb as high as 33C again, parts of the country appeared unable to cope with the unseasonably hot weather

Passengers board an overcrowded train down to Bournemouth 

Britain is set to swelter through another day of blistering heat after forecasters warned temperatures could climb as high as 33C again

Despite ‘No Swimming’ signs erected around a a pond at Hampstead Heath. Dozens ignored the warnings and took a dip in scorching weather 

Beachgoers enjoy the cool water at the very hot weather in Margate

Horse riders enjoy the bright morning sunshine on Wimbledon Common

Reco Puttock (left) was rushed to hospital after being pulled from Leadbeater Dam in Halifax. His death came a day after 15-year-old Declan Sawyer (right) drowned at Swanholme Lakes in Lincoln

The Met Office confirmed Tuesday became the hottest May day ever recorded in both England and Wales, with temperatures soaring to a provisional 35.1C at Kew Gardens in south-west London and 32.9C at Cardiff’s Bute Park.

The unprecedented spring heat has sent thousands flocking to beaches, lakes and rivers across the country, but emergency services have been stretched by a string of fatal incidents involving children and teenagers getting into difficulty in open water.

Among the victims was 15-year-old Declan Sawyer, who died after entering the water at Swanholme Lakes in Lincoln on Sunday.

In West Yorkshire, a 13-year-old boy died after getting into trouble at Leadbeater Dam near Halifax on Monday afternoon. Police said he was pulled from the water and rushed to hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

A teenage girl’s body was also recovered from Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire, while another teenager was found dead in the water at Rother Valley Country Park in South Yorkshire in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

And on Tuesday evening, Lancashire Police confirmed a body had been recovered from the River Ribble after a 12-year-old boy disappeared while swimming with friends at Ribchester.

The tragedy continued in Cornwall when a man in his 60s suffered a cardiac arrest after entering the sea at Tregirls Beach near Padstow in a desperate attempt to rescue two relatives who had got into difficulty in the water.

The family members were brought safely ashore by members of the public, but the man died at the scene.

Ireland has also been gripped by the same early-summer heat, with a teenage girl dying after getting into difficulty in the sea at Burrow Beach near Howth on Sunday.

Met Eireann said Ireland provisionally recorded its hottest ever May temperature on Tuesday at 30.5C.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution warned swimmers not to be lulled into a false sense of security by the soaring temperatures, stressing that water temperatures remain dangerously cold despite the sunshine.

The RNLI said there was a ‘very real risk’ linked to swimming in open water during the heatwave and warned of cold water shock.

Abbie Carmody-Pepper, 15, vanished at Burrow Beach in a separate incident outside the UK in Howth, Dublin, with friends after entering the water

A humpback whale was spotted in Brixham initially struggling with rope wrapped around one of its fins but was later freed

People crammed onto packed Tube services this morning amid a record-breaking heatwave 

Strewn rubbish left on brighton beach

Beachgoers stand by the overflowing rubbish bin on the Margate seafront.

Floating debris and yellowish foam on the surface of the sea near the beach in Margate

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The National Fire Chiefs Council has also issued an urgent safety warning, urging parents to speak to children about the dangers of swimming unsupervised in lakes, reservoirs, canals and rivers.

Despite slightly cooler conditions expected in some regions on Wednesday, forecasters say south-west England could still see highs of 32C to 33C.

Temperatures are then expected to remain stubbornly high through the week, with London and the East Midlands forecast to hit 32C on Thursday before easing slightly by the weekend.

The extreme weather has already caused widespread disruption on Britain’s railways, with Network Rail forced to impose speed restrictions amid fears tracks could buckle in the heat.

Britain also endured what meteorologists described as a ‘tropical night’ on Monday, after temperatures failed to drop below 20C in parts of the country.

Kenley Airfield in south London recorded an overnight low of 21.3C – the warmest May minimum temperature ever recorded in the UK.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said the conditions were unlike anything normally seen in spring.

‘It really is an exceptionally warm or very hot spell at the moment. For any time of the year it’s hot, but for May in particular – it is still meteorological spring.

‘In terms of how ground-breaking, how historic it is – it’s very similar to that first time that we reached 40C.

‘The fact that we’ve exceeded the May temperature by such an amount really is extraordinary and quite worrying.’

Amber heat-health alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency remain in force across large parts of England until Thursday evening, including London, the South East, South West and Midlands.

Scientists have also warned the extraordinary temperatures bear the fingerprints of climate change.

A recent climate attribution study by the Met Office found the chances of exceeding the UK’s previous May heat record are now around three times more likely because of human-driven climate change.

The beautiful weather has also caused chaos down at the beaches as rubbish bins have been spotted over flowing with trash. 

Down at Margate, Bournemouth beach and Brighton beach hundreds of plastic cups and bottles, beer cans, takeaway boxes, broken camping chairs, inflatable toys, and discarded barbecues were strewn across the beach. 

At Bournemouth beach there are around 300 bins along the seafront, but nearly all of them were overflowing with garbage on Tuesday, as well as piles of bin bags on the pavement next to them.