In France which has been the worst hit, accounting for 22 of Europe's 31 dead so far including 10 elderly people and a fifteen-month-old child most areas of the country experienced a slight cooling off on Sunday.

However, close to half the country's departments were placed on high alert for the coming week.

The heatwave was spreading slowly towards the centre, the Paris region and eastwards of the capital, and also in the south-west, and France's biggest cities like Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux were starting to wilt again.

French forecasters said the heat will be worst on Tuesday and Wednesday. No cooling-off is expected before Thursday. Peak temperatures will be up to 38 to 39 degrees Celsius (100 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southeast, and 36 to 37 in the southwest.

Government officials were keen to be seen to be active, mobilising television and radio channels to warn people of the dangers, anxious not to see a repeat of 2003 when an inept government response was blamed for contributing to the deaths of 15,000, mostly elderly, people.

In Spain the death of a builder on Saturday morning on the island of Minorca brought to seven the number of people killed by the heat this summer.

Six Spanish regions were on high alert over the weekend, with temperatures at their most oppressive in the south, reaching 40 degrees Celcius in Alicante, Valencia and Murcia, and 37 degrees in Malaga.

The Spanish government has put into place measures to help the estimated four million Spaniards most at risk.

The heat itself was not the only danger, with seven people injured in Germany overnight on Saturday when a tornado hit Karlsruhe in the southwest of the country and heavy summer storms lashed Bavaria.

In Hambruecken, a man fell and broke his leg while trying to reinforce the roof of his home during the tornado, with the high winds damaging at least 50 roofs and uprooting trees, some of which landed on cars and electricity pylons.

Four people were struck by lightning in Bavaria, while a woman was hit on the head by a branch that snapped off a tree and a man was hurt in the chest when he tried to cling to a tent pole in the storm.

In Britain, which on Wednesday recorded its hottest July day ever, the weather was cooler, but again expected to heat up at the beginning of the week.

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