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Spanish authorities are investigating the death of a street sweeper in Barcelona, amid concerns that an intense heatwave gripping the country may have been a contributing factor.
The woman, who had been cleaning the city's old town on Saturday afternoon, died later that day at her home, her sister told the Antena 3 TV station.
The Barcelona city council confirmed on Monday that an investigation has been launched to determine the exact cause of death and its potential link to the extreme temperatures.
Her sister said the 51-year-old woman, identified just as Montserrat, had told a colleague she thought she "was dying."
Temperatures reached 30.4 degrees Celsius (86.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in Barcelona on Saturday, weather agency AEMET said.
Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people being among the most vulnerable.
The City council said on Monday it would investigate the woman's death.
Last year, there were 2,032 deaths attributable to heat in Spain, according to the Health Ministry. That number was still lower than heat-linked fatalities in 2023 and 2022.
The first heatwave of the summer hit Spain during the weekend and is set to last until Tuesday.
It comes as two men have died in separate incidents in Italy, one from illness on a construction site and another reportedly drowning amidst flash floods to the west of Turin.
The Mediterranean Sea was up to 6 degrees Celsius warmer than usual for the time of year, hitting a record of as much as 30 C (86 F) in Spain's Balearic Sea as a heat dome trapped hot air above Europe, the country's Aemet weather forecaster said.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the global average, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, making extreme heatwaves occur earlier in the year, and persist into later months.
In France, the heat was set to peak on Tuesday, reaching 40-41 C in some areas and 36-39 C in most others, weather forecaster Meteo France said. Sixteen departments will be on the highest level of alert from noon, with 68 on the second highest.
Some 1,350 schools will be fully or partially closed due to the heat, up significantly from around 200 on Monday, the Education Ministry said. The top floor of the Eiffel Tower will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, with visitors advised to drink plenty of water.
The extreme heat also raised the risk of field fires as farmers in France, the European Union's biggest grain producer, start harvesting this year's crop.
Some farmers were working through the night to avoid harvesting during peak temperatures in the afternoon. In the Indre region of central France, which has seen a spate of field fires since late June, authorities banned field work between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
