A boy cools off in a fountain in downtown Berlin July 19, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    BEIJING, July 20 -- Much of western Europe is sweltering under tropical temperatures, as a heatwave claimed seven in a week.

    Authorities in the eastern French town of Macon said a 53 year-old laborer died overnight of "malign hyperthermia" after working outside in temperature of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit).

    Two elderly people died Tuesday in southwestern France because of the heat, and in the Netherlands two people died on the opening day of an annual walking event at Nijmegen.

    In Spain a man who died of heat exhaustion in the northwest region of Galicia was the country's second to succumb after a man died in Murcia in the southeast Sunday.

    Temperatures in Britain peaked yesterday, reaching 39 degrees in parts of the southeast. Italy's main farmers' union said the country was suffering one of the worst droughts in 30 years with the situation in the north and the centre particularly bad.

    Water levels in the lakes of northern Italy have fallen to historic low levels, making the irrigation of crops difficult, the Coldiretti union said in a statement.

    Belgium, Germany and Scandinavian countries were also experiencing unusually hot weather.

    The heatwave recalled the summer of 2003, when some 30,000 mainly elderly people died across Europe as a result of dehydration and heat-stroke, but medical authorities in France and elsewhere said lessons had been learned and a repeat was unlikely.

    French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was scheduled to visit an old people's home in Paris yesterday to review procedures.

    "There is no reason for disquiet, but we have to be vigilant and the health protection messages have to be constantly repeated," said Health Minister Xavier Bertrand.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)

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