Hotspots of more than 35 degrees (95 degrees Fahrenheit) Celsius were noted in southern Spain, southwest France and northwest Italy and a vast swathe of the continent from the west coast of France into Poland sweltered in temperatures of 30-35 degrees.

The death toll also rose with news that the heat had claimed the lives of "about 40" people in France, public health body InVS announced. An estimated 10 people have died elsewhere in Europe.

The heatwave has revived memories of a period of baking temperatures in 2003 when tens of thousands of people died, including 15,000 in France.

Governments and medical services have stepped up their efforts to prevent deaths this time, urging people to drink water, keep cool and look out for elderly citizens who are particularly at risk.

Temperatures were expected to peak on Wednesday or Thursday in France, Britain and Germany before cooling off around the weekend with stormy conditions expected in some areas.

Isolated storms erupted on Tuesday causing a mini-tornado in the northern Italian city of Turin and knocking out telephone lines in southwest France.

In addition to the public health risk, the steamy conditions have also caused headaches for event organisers, farmers and electricity companies.

In Germany, temperatures were forecast to reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 F) on Thursday in the southwest of the country and around the capital Berlin, possibly surpassing record levels reached in 2003, forecasters said.

In a move that would bring further misery for farmers, the German animal protection federation has called for animal transports to be stopped because of the heat, saying police had to rescue pigs who nearly died of thirst in a truck stuck in a traffic jam.

Also in Germany, navigation on the river Elbe in the north of the country was disrupted after water levels dropped below navigable levels.

The water was just 90 centimetres (three feet) deep in parts, four months after the river flooding its banks. Commercial vessels which need water levels of at least 2.3 metres were diverted into canals which were not as badly affected.

The low level and temperature of the water in the river led nuclear power generators along the banks of the Elbe to cut output.

High water temperatures have also disrupted electricity production at nuclear power stations in France and Spain. Water is used as a cooling agent at the plants but the temperature of discharged water must be within environmental norms.

"We are adjusting our output on a constant basis according to the temperature of the water," a spokesman for the Vattenfall electricity company in Germany said.

Farmers in France, the Netherlands and Poland have already warned that the heat is set to reduce their harvests this year. The French government was expected to hold an inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday to discuss the impact of the heatwave on the agricultural sector.

Poland halted exports of electricity Tuesday because of water shortages resulting from the heatwave, energy officials said.

In Italy, a tornado ripped through the city of Turin in the northwest of the country, damaging about 50 cars and several houses.

In Britain, the heatwave that has already lasted 10 days in many parts of the country was expected to produce higher temperatures mid-week before finally ending at the weekend.

The national Met Office said London could see temperatures of 34 degrees Celsius (93 F) on Wednesday, a few degrees short of the July record of 36.5 Celsius that was set last week.

In the Netherlands, the Fiets4daagse, an annual four-day cycling event due to start on Tuesday, was cancelled because of the heat.

In France, the state-run weather centre Meteo-France maintained its orange heatwave alert, the second-highest warning level, for about half of the country.

It forecast temperatures of 30-35 degrees Celsius on Wednesday for much of France before storms move in on Thursday.

Travellers in the Paris metro were urged to drink plenty of water and the Le Parisian newspaper devoted the first five pages of its Tuesday edition to tips and reports on the heat phenomenon.

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