Portugal Colonial - Europe heatwave swamps hospitals, halts parties

Medics in Britain and France warned hospitals were struggling with the heat and a surge in emergency calls.

Authorities have reported hundreds of people dead in Spain and others across Europe, including several children who died in hot cars.

Some cooler air breezed over western parts, but central and eastern Europe warned their heatwaves had yet to peak, with the Czech Republic and Hungary on red alert for the weekend and temperatures of up to 40C forecast.

Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels -- and are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.

- Heat dome -

At a homeless shelter on Thursday in Berlin, where the temperature topped 33C, Christian Bernardt, 52, found relief in a cool room.

"The heat is exhausting... Nobody was expecting this heatwave," he said.

"It's very tiring, especially when you have to walk down the street with all your luggage, wandering from train station to train station."

The deputy director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, Samantha Burgess, said the hot weather was due to a "heat dome" of trapped air from north Africa in a low-lying high-pressure system.

"The weather pattern itself is not particularly unusual," climate scientist Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution (WWA), told reporters

"But the temperatures are -- or at least they used to be, without human-induced climate change."

- 150 mn at 35C -

At least 150 million people in Europe were expected to experience temperatures above 35C on Friday, according to AFP calculations based on forecasts.

Maximum temperatures were forecast to exceed 30C for more than 420 million people across Europe, excluding Turkey -- around 70 percent of the population.

London Ambulance Service said the extreme heat on Wednesday had led to the highest number of life-threatening emergency calls in a day.

France saw a fourfold increase in emergency room visits for heat-related reasons and a surge of cardiac arrests, the health ministry said.

"We are reaching a saturation point in hospital facilities," Paris police chief Patrice Faure said, announcing a rare ban on evening alcohol sales in Paris over the weekend.

Paris also postponed its Pride parade, scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

- Italy drought warning -

Near Italy's Po River estuary, clam fishermen toiled picking their nets free of algae spawned by the heat.

"On top of all our problems, now there's this crazy heat, so long, so unexpected," said Paolo Mancin, head of a fishers' cooperative, standing in the 31C water.

"Algae form and the clams are dying in large numbers."

Authorities in the region warned the low level of the Po river threatened to cause a drought. Across Italy 18 cities were under red alert.

- Heatwave heads east -

Europe's western fringe enjoyed some relief, with a storm breaking overnight in the French region of Brittany, yielding cooler air on Friday.

"I've come back to life. We can breathe at last," said one local woman, Aurelie Sauvager, 47.

"We were missing not being able to go out -- it was hard. It was very hot and we felt tired, but now it's getting better."

But much of the Netherlands remained under red alert, with authorities advising people to travel only if necessary and most schools closed.

Germany and the Netherlands cancelled numerous Outdoor festivals and events.

Hungary's Prime Minister Peter Magyar said authorities were preparing millions of bags of drinking water for possible public distribution and urging residents to conserve water.

L.Carrico--PC