Parisians took to sleeping outside last night as temperatures rose above 40C amid a sweltering heatwave that continues to grip Europe. 

Pictures showed people lying on inflatable mattresses and blankets in the French capital’s green spaces in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

France, along with the rest of Western Europe, has been baking under a ‘heat dome’ this week. 

Dozens of people, both young and old, have died during the heatwave in France, including an 18-month-old baby who was left in a hot car in Marseille. 

The tragedy makes the baby the fourth child to die in France amid the scorching temperatures.  

Meanwhile, temperatures above 40C have disrupted rail travel and power generation, sparked alcohol bans, suspended schools and postponed outdoor events as French hospitals become overwhelmed. 

French and British health services reported a surge in emergency calls and visits as the merciless heat struck the elderly and the ill.

‘We are reaching a saturation point in hospital facilities,’ Paris police chief Patrice Faure said. ‘The number of hospitalisations keeps increasing.’

Parisians took to sleeping outside last night as temperatures rose above 40C

People lie under blankets at sunset in Buttes-Chaumont Park as temperatures rise amid a heatwave affecting a large part of the country, in Paris, France, June 27, 2026

People cool off in the Trocadero Fountain near to the Eiffel Tower as temperatures rise during a heatwave affecting a large part of the country, in Paris, France, June 24, 2026

France saw a fourfold increase in emergency room visits for heat-related reasons and a surge of cardiac arrests, authorities said.

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

Germany and Italy have been enduring sweltering conditions on Saturday as the heatwave continues to spread eastwards. 

Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany have all experienced record heat in June, and the weather system could test more records as it rolls across Germany towards Poland.

Scientists said the heatwave would have been virtually impossible without man-made climate change, which has made this week’s night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been even two decades ago.

On Friday, a new German record of 41.3 C was reached near the city of Saarbrücke, close to the French border, according to Germany’s National Meteorological Service.

The service issued extreme heat warnings for nearly all of Germany on Saturday as authorities urged people to save water.

It said temperatures of 36 C were expected across the board in the country, with local highs of 42 C possible.

A woman shields herself from the sun with a towel over her head amid a heatwave in Budapest, Hungary, June 27, 2026

Workers push handcart loaded with water bottles during a heatwave in Saint Mark square in Venice on June 27, 2026

Tourits shield themself from the sun with an umbrella during a heatwave in Venice on June 27, 2026

A young man jumps from a bridge into a canal to cool off during an extreme heatwave on June 26, 2026, in Dortmund, Germany

People swim in the Canal Saint-Martin after public swimming was permitted in certain areas due to high temperatures amid a heatwave in Paris, France, June 26, 2026

A man washes his face with water during an extreme heatwave on June 26, 2026, in Dortmund, Germany

The heatwave is going to peak at the weekend at well over 40 degrees in some parts of Germany,’ said Karsten Brandt, a meteorologist at weather forecasting site Donnerwetter.de.

The Ironman European Championship long-distance triathlon taking place on Sunday in Frankfurt shortened the cycling and running courses due to the heat, organisers said.

Italy’s health ministry issued a red alert for the heatwave in 18 Italian cities, including Milan, Rome, Turin, Venice, Genoa, Florence and Bologna for Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures expected to climb as high as 39 C in some areas.

Italian singer Loredana Berte said she had cancelled a concert scheduled for Sunday in the northern city of Bergamo due to the heat on the advice of her management and medical staff.

‘Performing under these conditions would pose a real risk to my health,’ Berte, who was married to Swedish tennis star Björn Borg in the early 1990s, wrote on X.

Struggling with the prospect of damage to infrastructure, including buckling roads and swelling train tracks, some major public service providers have sought to reduce traffic.

German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn has given customers the option of cancelling long-distance travel bookings into early next week without charge due to the heatwave.

The firm said its infrastructure is under particular strain because of sun exposure and additional risk to signals, tracks and overhead wires stemming from thunderstorms and wildfires.

Another operator, National Express, said it would suspend trains on its Rhine-Ruhr-Express line on Saturday afternoon in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, as a preventative measure in case services came to an unplanned halt.

Andre Berghegger, CEO of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, urged the public to use water sparingly due to the heatwave.

‘We should rely on voluntary cooperation as long as possible; local authorities should only issue bans if that doesn’t work,’ he told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper.

The most extreme heat is forecast to begin fading over the weekend, with heavy thunderstorms expected on Sunday.

Across Europe, cultural landmarks have had to close, farming has suffered, and some hospitals have struggled to cope.

The extreme conditions have come in June, earlier in the summer than is usual. Records are tumbling by day and by night. Add in the humidity and it’s more tropical than temperate.

The heat is coming up from North Africa and affecting Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom — most of them without widespread air conditioning and unused to such oppressive heat.

Conditions are expected to ease in the coming days, though July and August, the traditional height of the European summer, are still to come.

The extreme heat has also led three nuclear reactors to close in France as high temperatures across the country reduced access to water needed to cool the plants.

A group of teenagers throw water at a young man driving a scooter next to the Canal Saint-Martin during a heatwave, in Paris

People protect themselves from the heatwave that affects daily life as high temperatures continue, on June 26, 2026, in Madrid, Spain

The Golfech reactor has been closed since Monday, while the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power plant in Aube shut this morning due to ‘external causes related to the environment’.

Deaths are rising as a three-year-old boy was found dead in a car in the suburbs of Paris, where temperatures topped 40C on Wednesday, the latest such death.

The three-year-old’s parents found the boy unresponsive in the car outside their home, 45 minutes after sending the child to bed when he told them he was feeling tired.

The boy is believed to have locked himself in the vehicle, but the circumstances around how he ended up in the car in the first place are unclear.

The incident also brings the death toll of children dying in extreme weather conditions in France to three, after two siblings died after being left in a hot car earlier this week.

The brothers, aged just four and two, were found unresponsive by their mother, 33, on Monday afternoon in the town of Carpentras, southern France, in a car parked outside their grandmother’s house.

They suffered cardiac arrest as temperatures reached a sweltering 40C, and while services were called to the scene, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

In the west coast town of Tranche-sur-Mer, an elderly British woman collapsed and died at the Baie D-Aunis campsite on Wednesday.

At least 40 people, many of them young, have drowned in France in the heatwave, according to the government.

In Spain, the MoMo monitoring system of mortality rates said 212 deaths between Sunday and Wednesday could be linked to the heat.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported five deaths from the heatwave, including two farmworkers and a builder.

The bodies of three young men were recovered from the Marchfeld Canal near Gerasdorf in Austria on Thursday, after they were initially reported missing.

The men, between 25 and their early 30s, are believed to have had an accident during a stand-up paddleboarding trip and drowned, according to Kronen Zeitung.

Authorities warned people to take extra care when swimming in unsupervised areas, such as rivers or lakes, following the deaths of at least 48 people in France over the past week.

French footballer Kenzo Kies has died from drowning in the Rhone River after he had gone for a swim to cool down from the blistering heat.

Kies, 21, who played for Guingamp in Ligue 2, was in a critical condition when he was pulled from the water on Monday, and later died in hospital.

Kies and three friends entered the river near Lyon. Three people were pulled to safety by emergency services, but Kies was the last to be found.

More than 1,000 schools in England have closed due to the heat, and many train services were cancelled, with passengers being urged to avoid nonessential travel in areas covered by the warning.

A tourist uses a hand fan to cool herself visiting St. Mark’s Square, during a heatwave in Venice lagoon, on June 26, 2026

A man drinks water during an extreme heatwave on June 26, 2026, in Dortmund, Germany

People sit at the side of the Dortmund-Ems Canal in Dortmund, western Germany on June 26, 2026 during a heatwave in Europe

In France, Italy and Spain, more than 100 million people were warned to be extra vigilant about the dangers of the heat wave.

Meanwhile, the UK recorded its hottest June day on Wednesday, with 36.1 reported at Gosport in southern England.

The national weather forecaster issued a red alert for heat in much of central and southern England, as well as Wales.

The deputy director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess, said the hot weather was due to a ‘heat dome’ of trapped air from north Africa in a low-lying high-pressure system, preventing cooler air from moving in.

Polly Turton, head of climate action at NGO Shade the UK, said the situation was ‘the new normal’.

‘The sleepless nights we’re all experiencing, we are going to have to adapt to,’ she said, ‘At the moment, we are not a well-adapted UK by any means.’