France has its hottest night on record, 15 Italian cities under red heat alert and UN chief says London is ‘cooking’ Europe heatwave live – latest updates Forty people have drowned while swimming in unsupervised areas across France in recent days, the prime minister has said, as people across the country sought respite from a record-breaking heatwave that saw France register its hottest day on record and sent sweltering heat across much of Europe. “There is a tragic scourge of drownings,” Sébastien Lecornu said on Tuesday. “The latest figures we’ve received are 40 deaths since 18 June.