ROME: Authorities across Southern Europe urged people to seek shelter on Sunday (Jun 29) and protect the most vulnerable as punishing temperatures from Spain to Portugal, Italy and France climbed higher in the summer’s first major heatwave.
Ambulances stood on standby near tourist hotspots and regions issued fire warnings as experts warned that such heatwaves, intensified by climate change, would become more frequent.
Peaks of 43 degrees Celsius were expected in areas of southern Spain and Portugal, while nearly all of France is sweltering in heat expected to last for several days.
In Italy, 21 cities were on high alert for extreme heat, including Milan, Naples, Venice, Florence and Rome.
“We were supposed to be visiting the Colosseum, but my mum nearly fainted,” said British tourist Anna Becker, who had travelled to Rome from a “muggy, miserable” Verona.
Hospital emergency departments across Italy have reported an uptick in heatstroke cases, according to Mario Guarino, vice president of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine.
“We’ve seen around a 10 per cent increase, mainly in cities that not only have very high temperatures but also a higher humidity rate. It is mainly elderly people, cancer patients or homeless people, presenting with dehydration, heat stroke, fatigue,” he told AFP.
