Western Europe hit by record heat wave

"The temperature was sky high. It was very bad," Jan Willem Wiersma from Rotterdam told the BBC. "We're happy to be off the train, where it's 15 C less."

The highest temperature recorded in Paris — 40.4 C in 1947 — is expected to be surpassed on Thursday. Temperatures are breaking records in France this week with more than 80 regions on orange heatwave alert, says Meteo France.

France's SNCF rail service, fearing faults because of the "exceptional weather conditions", urged passengers to delay trips, offered them refunds and said its high-speed trains would run slower. Britain's Network Rail said it was slowing trains, too.