{"id":44524,"date":"2026-06-22T17:09:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/44524\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T17:09:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:09:36","slug":"spain-france-italy-and-greece-on-alert-after-deaths-over-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/44524\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain, France, Italy and Greece on alert after deaths over weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Events and public transport have been cancelled with public drinking bannedNeil Shaw<\/a> Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)<\/p>\n

07:26, 22 Jun 2026Updated 08:39, 22 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

\"Festivalgoers<\/p>\n

Festivalgoers pass under a water spray to cool down during the heatwave at the Hellfest festival site in Clisson, Loire-Atlantique, France<\/p>\n

Health warnings have been issued for people across Europe, including in France, Italy, Spain and Germany. France has been cancelling trains, concerts and sports events and cracking down on public drinking as an exceptional heat wave unfurled across parts of Europe.<\/p>\n

Multiple drownings were reported as people sought relief in whatever water they could find. About a third of France is under \u201cred alert\u2033 heat and temperatures reached 40C in some areas, in a country where air-conditioning is not widespread.<\/p>\n

The forecast for Monday is even hotter. The Eiffel Tower and other Paris venues set up misting stations to cool crowds, among a raft of measures introduced by authorities to minimise risks. Tourists in Rome dunked in fountains.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Basque Country cancelled some sports and cultural events. More than 200,000 people across Europe died from heat-related causes over the last four years, and most of the fatalities were preventable, the World Health Organisation\u2019s Europe office said this month.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman walks under a mist sprayer installed by Paris City Hal<\/p>\n

More above-average temperatures are expected this summer, which can cause heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke. Human-caused climate change is tied to increasing extreme weather<\/a> events and UN climate agency projections say the next five years should shatter more heat records.<\/p>\n

A rapid study found that human-caused climate change was responsible for killing about 1,500 people in an unusually early European heat wave in May. In this latest European hot spell, French media reported that four children drowned on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Summer drownings are an annual problem that health authorities say worsens during hot spells. France\u2019s annual Music Day on Sunday was of particular concern. The nationwide summer solstice celebration involves thousands of concerts in village squares, rave venues and Paris clubs, bringing communities together and increasingly drawing British and other international visitors.<\/p>\n

Some of the concerts outside Paris were cancelled. The French government banned public drinking in \u201cred alert\u201d zones, and ordered organisers of music day events to limit alcohol consumption to \u201cpreserve emergency services and allow medics to concentrate on taking care of the most vulnerable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Scores of French trains were cancelled, and the national rail authority dispatched thousands of extra staff to deal with potential problems as the heat threatened rails and electrical cables. Authorities are notably worried about people living in the baking streets, and elderly people in nursing homes or isolated in their homes.<\/p>\n

About 15,000 older people died in France in a 2003 heat wave that became a national reckoning. The government mobilised emergency services and military forces for reinforced wildfire readiness, imposed tightened surveillance of water supplies to France\u2019s many nuclear reactors, and ordered 845 schools to close on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People cool off in the water areas of the Manzanares River at Madrid Rio Park<\/p>\n

Spain kicked off the summer with large parts of the country on alert because of temperatures expected to hover around 40C \u2014 even in the interior of the Basque Country, a northern region that typically experiences cooler temperatures. Authorities have suspended outdoor sports and cultural activities in the region.<\/p>\n

The heatwave<\/a> is expected to scorch Spain at least until Wednesday. In Italy, authorities expanded heat warnings \u2014 referred to locally as \u201cred flags\u201d \u2014 to eight cities on Sunday in northern and central parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Temperatures there are mostly in the upper 30s. At one farm outside Milan, owners set up fans and sprinklers to keep cows cool, while visitors to Milan Fashion Week huddled under parasols and clutched fans.<\/p>\n

In Rome, tourists dunked their arms and occasionally their faces into the city\u2019s famed fountain pools. The German Weather Service is forecasting temperatures of up to 37C for Monday and Tuesday, and up to 39C on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A 23-year-old man drowned on Saturday in a lake near Rheinstetten in the south-western region of Baden-Wurttemberg, the German news agency dpa reported. Three other people are missing after swimming in the Rhine River, a police spokeswoman told dpa.<\/p>\n

Thunderstorms also threatened regions in Germany and Poland. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is convening a new government heat crisis meeting on Sunday, and ordered government ministers to plan for better adapting France to heat waves in the future \u2014 including \u201cvia air conditioning, if necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Events and public transport have been cancelled with public drinking bannedNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle) 07:26,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20223,1512,20222,373,4496,20221,20224,5608,7649,13475,17,20225,9768],"class_list":["post-44524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-care-homes","tag-climate-change","tag-eiffel-tower","tag-health","tag-heatwave","tag-milan-fashion-week","tag-nursing-homes","tag-public-services","tag-public-transport","tag-railways","tag-spain","tag-surveillance","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}