Five members of the same family were killed by forest fires in Spain yesterday and Parisian hospitals were overrun with patients as the heatwave gripping Europe took its toll.
However, forecasters predict there will be some relief by the end of the week.
The five were killed as they apparently tried to flee the flames that had encircled their home. They were the country's first victims of the fires that have devastated parts of the continent in recent weeks.
In neighbouring Portugal, which has been worst affected by the blazes, four villages in the Algarve were evacuated because of a fire that more than 200 firefighters have been battling to control for three days.
Germany also struggled to contain blazes. In Jueterbog in the eastern state of Brandenburg, emergency services said up to 250 acres of forest was burning.
But weather forecasters said the hot, dry weather that has claimed dozens of lives was expected to break by the weekend.
Spain's weather service said there would be another week of heat before a cold front moved in from the Atlantic.
In France, Parisians had one of the warmest nights on record, as temperatures reached 30 degrees at midnight. The temperature dipped briefly to 25.5 degrees the highest night-time "low" since records began 130 years ago.
Hospitals in the French capital struggled to cope as hundreds of people suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion presented themselves to accident and emergency departments.
One doctor estimated that at least 50 people have died of heat-related illnesses over the past week. Dr Patrick Pelloux, the head of France's emergency hospital doctors' association, insisted scores of deaths were going uncounted in the Paris region and accused the government of failing to deal with a silent health crisis.
The government acknowledged an increase in the number of elderly being treated at hospitals but said it was unclear if the heat was to blame.
The prolonged drought has depleted rivers and lakes, causing problems for shipping and threatening output by hydro-electric and nuclear power plants.
Croatia is also experiencing water shortages along the southern Adriatic coast and islands. Some islands, like Pag and Vis, have already experienced cuts in supplies.
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