H ealth and fire warnings have been issued in countries across southern Europe, with temperatures expected to exceed 40C in some places over the weekend. Italy, Greece, France, Spain and Portugal are among the countries affected - with the Spanish city of Seville forecast to hit 42C.

Southern Europeans braced Saturday for their first heatwave of the northern hemisphere summer, as climate change pushes thermometers on the world's fastest-warming continent increasingly into the red.

With residents of the southern French port city of Marseille expected to have to cope with temperatures flirting with 40C, authorities in city ordered public swimming pools to be made free of charge to help residents beat the Mediterranean heat.