Fourth toddler dies in France as Europe’s brutal heatwave forecast to shift east

People cool off at a mist fountain at Place du Trocadero in Paris on Friday. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen People cool off at a mist fountain at Place du Trocadero in Paris on Friday. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images Fourth toddler dies in France as Europe’s brutal heatwave forecast to shift east Scientists say hot spell is worst ever, with nearly half of region’s 850 largest cities facing unprecedented heat stress The number of deaths in France linked to the heatwave has climbed to four toddlers and more than 55 drownings, as the brutally hot conditions sweeping Europe were forecast to shift east, choking 150 million people under 35C (95F) temperatures. Scientists said the heatwave was the most severe and widespread ever, leaving nearly half of the region’s 850 largest cities grappling with unprecedented heat stress. They said the extreme temperatures had been made possible by the climate crisis driven by fossil fuel burning. On Friday, a hospital in Marseille said an 18-month-old child had died in emergency care earlier in the week after he was found in a car in a state of hyperthermia. A police source told the newspaper Le Figaro it was believed that the father, who works in the area, may have forgotten his son in the car when he was supposed to drop him off at daycare. Paris bans drinking alcohol in public as hospitals hit heatwave breaking point Read more Earlier this week, a three-year-old boy in a Paris suburb was found dead after climbing into a car and becoming trapped when the child lock was activated. Separately, the bodies of two children aged two and four were found in their family’s car in a residential car park. France’s sports minister, Marina Ferrari, said on Friday that at least 55 people across the country had drowned, up from the 40 reported earlier in the week. “By yesterday night we were at 55, but we fear that the situation may worsen,” she told the broadcaster Franceinfo. View image in fullscreen France’s health minister, Stéphanie Rist, visits an emergency shelter during the heatwave in Paris. Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images In the UK, the Met Office said the record for the hottest June day had been broken for the third day running. Provisional figures showed a temperature of 37.3C in Santon Downham, Suffolk, on Friday, beating the previous record of 36.7C set on Thursday. “And temperatures are still rising,” the forecaster added. As a Met Office red alert for heat remained in place for an unprecedented third day running for London and south-east England, while an amber alert covered most of central and eastern England, calls on the government to take more action grew louder . The UK Health Security Agency’s red heat-health alert was extended until 11pm on Friday and covered all of southern and central England, while an amber heat-health alert was in place for all of England until 9am on Sunday. A red alert means there is a significant risk to life even for he