Early intense heat wave spreading across Europe

The temperatures were high in most of Western Europe on the first day of the weekend. France and the Iberian Peninsula have been hit hard.

In southwestern France, temperatures of 42 to 43 degrees Celsius occurred, as the city of Biarrriz broke a record “absolut” of the temperature.

Almost three quarters of France's population, about 45 million people, were given heat alarms in what is the earliest heat wave ever recorded in France.

For some in Paris, especially those living in narrow and old apartments, the burning heat was too much to bear