The number of deaths as a result of a heatwave in France has risen to 64, most of them elderly people, officials said yesterday.

?The number we have established up to yesterday evening is 64 deaths which seem to us directly or indirectly caused by this heatwave,? Gilles Bruecker, director of the French Institute of Health Surveillance, told a news conference.

Of the total, 40 were people above 75 years of age, although Bruecker said it was not always easy to say whether the unusual heat was responsible for their deaths.

Ten of those who died were suffering from health conditions that made them vulnerable to the heat, including 3 cases of serious obesity and two cases of diabetes.

Of the remainder, eight people had died at work, three died while playing sports, two were homeless and one was a child.

The total is well short of the 15,000 deaths caused by the last serious heatwave in 2003 which prompted the government to boost measures to protect vulnerable groups during unusually hot weather. Fierce thunder storms swept France overnight and weather forecasters said temperatures should drop closer to normal levels over the coming days.

Elsewhere across Europe many countries also baked again in the grip of the deadly heatwave that has led to forest fires, forced water restrictions and damaged farmland across the continent. Now firmly in its second week, the heatwave brought temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) to most of Europe with hotspots in France, Germany, Spain and northeast Italy.

This time round, factors such as greater awareness, slightly lower temperatures and preventative action by goverments to protect the elderly are thought to have helped limit the number of deaths.

Nevertheless, in Italy the heat killed a man of 87 and a woman of 89 in the northern city of Turin during the night of Tuesday, the Italian ANSA news agency reported on Wednesday.

And in Spain, the death of a woman of 83 in Barcelona in northeast Spain brought the toll in that country to nine.

Towards the end of the week, weathermen predict that storms and wet weather will spread east across western Europe, dousing Britain, France and Germany and bringing relief to the millions suffering from the high humidity, sticky nights and blazing sunshine.

Incredible temperatures

In France on Wednesday, the mercury had climbed to 38 degrees Celsius (100 F) in the south of the country while Parisians faced a sticky 36 degrees Celsius (97 F). French Environment Minister Nelly Olin warned that groundwater levels in the Paris region were at their lowest level in 20 years and said that water restrictions were in place for nearly half of the country.

In Britain, temperatures reached 33 degrees Celsius (91 F) and residents of Berlin in Germany sizzled in similar heat. The temperature in the German capital was set to hit 36 degrees in the next few days before storms tomorrow.

The level of the river Elbe which crosses Germany?s main port Hamburg has dropped below 90 centimetres (three feet) upstream at Dresden near the Czech border, making navigation almost impossible. Normally the level is some 2.2 metres. In Belgium temperatures reached between 26 degrees C (79 F) on the coast and and 35 degrees C (95 F) inland.

In Spain, where scorching summer temperatures are more normal, the mercury hit 38 degrees C (100 F) in the northeast while the southeast was much cooler with 27 C (81 F) in Almeria.

In Poland, firefighters were on maximum alert to tackle forest fires caused by the drought. Over 8,000 fires have broken out in recent days and access has been banned to most forests.

In nearby Latvia, potato farmers added their voice to a chorus of anguish from Europe?s agricultural sector. Farmers in France, the Netherlands and Poland have already warned of lower harvests this year and France on Wednesday lowered its forecast for its soft wheat harvest to below 35 million tonnes.