San Francisco Frontiers - Two children die in France as heatwave blasts Europe

The youngsters, aged two and four, were found in their family car in a residential parking lot in the southern town of Carpentras, where investigators said they believed the heatwave was the most likely reason for the deaths.

The latest bout of exceptionally high temperatures to hit Europe has seen outdoor events cancelled, transport disrupted, schools shut and office workers told to work from home, as the authorities issued health alerts to protect the elderly and vulnerable.

France, at the epicentre of the weather anomaly, has been sweltering for days.

But Britain's Met Office on Monday issued a rare red warning for extreme heat -- the national weather agency's highest alert level, indicating risk to life and the possibility of major infrastructure such as roads and railways being closed.

It was only the second time the Met Office has ever issued a red warning for heat, with temperatures in the shade expected to rise as high as 38 to 40C on Wednesday and Thursday.

The warning runs from 9:00 am (0800 GMT) on Wednesday to 9:00 pm on Thursday and covers a large area of central and southern England, including London and Birmingham, the UK's two largest cities.

Multiple schools in southwest England said they were planning to finish the school day early because of the anticipated temperature spike, and a train company said it was cancelling or changing some of its services out of London due to the "severe weather".

Akshay Deoras, a senior researcher at the University of Reading's National Centre for Atmospheric Science, in England, said it was clear what was behind the rash of heat records.

"Human-driven climate change has provided the springboard for this event, loading the atmosphere with extra heat and making extreme temperatures far more intense than they would have been in the past," he said.

In France, 49 of the country's 96 mainland departments were on the highest heat alert, with temperatures forecast to climb up to 43C in the southwestern city of Bordeaux and 39C in the capital Paris, weather service Meteo-France said.

The government's emergency response cell warned people not to try to cool off in unsupervised water areas such as lakes and rivers, after 13 people died by drowning at the weekend, including a 13-year-old girl.

Some 845 schools were shut on Monday because of the heat, with another 1,800 allowing students to leave earlier than usual.

"Last week, it was 32C in the classroom for the children. It's only going to get worse, while the supermarket across the street is cool and air-conditioned," one primary school teacher in the Bordeaux region told AFP.

French forecasters say the current heatwave, which has already been blamed for the deaths of several elderly people, could end up being as serious as the one in August 2003 that claimed the lives of nearly 15,000 in France.

"With this intense heat at the moment, it's tricky. You really have to protect yourself from the sun. You need to stay hydrated, otherwise you don't feel well," nurse Mamone Outhaithany, 31, told AFP in the southern city of Marseille.

- 'Intense and early' -

The high temperatures on Sunday forced the cancellation in several towns of France's annual street music festival, while an outdoor screening of Spain's World Cup football match against Saudi Arabia was scrapped in Madrid.

French and Belgian authorities also cancelled or cut back rail services because of fears about breakdowns causing logjams and delays.

Elsewhere in Europe:

- Temperatures in Belgium are expected to be "the hottest ever recorded" in the coming week, warned David Dehenauw, head of forecasting at the IRM meteorological institute.

- Spain's weather service Aemet warned of "extremely high" temperatures for the season, day and night, until Wednesday, with temperatures forecast to hit 44C in some areas.

Liz Bentley, the chief executive of Britain's Royal Meteorological Society, predicted that existing UK heat records for June would be "annihilated" -- as had already happened in May.

The current heatwave is the second in consecutive months, after an unusually hot spell in May broke new ground.

Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming, and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.

Meteo-France says that of the 51 heatwaves recorded nationwide since 1947, 34 have taken place since 2000 and 26 since 2011.

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U.Campbell--SFF