At least 101 million Europeans were expected to experience temperatures of over 35C on Thursday, in a punishing and increasingly deadly heatwave hotter than weather in parts of Africa.
France and Spain, among the countries worst hit, began counting the toll from the extreme temperatures, including a three-year-old boy who was trapped in his family's car.
AFP calculations based on forecasts from the German weather service and 2025 population projections from the European Joint Research Centre indicated that more than 380 million people would face temperatures of over 30C.
The UN's climate chief Simon Stiell said the heatwave -- made worse by buildings and infrastructure unsuited to such temperatures -- "has the fingerprints of the climate crisis all over it".
"It's the latest price to pay for fossil fuel pollution baking our planet. Until humanity stops burning colossal amounts of coal, oil and gas, extreme heat will keep getting worse," he added.
