A temperature of 45.1C has been recorded in France, the hottest in the country’s history.

Measured in Villevieille, a commune in the southern region of Occitanie, the spike in temperature came as the country declared a “red alert” weather warning for the first time ever as a punishing heatwave swept across Europe.

Elsewhere in the country volunteers scoured the streets of Paris to provide water to homeless people in a bid to avoid civilian deaths, old cars were banned from the roads in four major cities due to pollution, and some 4,000 schools were closed.

Teachers at the Victor Hugo primary school in Colombes near Paris abandoned suffocating classrooms and are keeping children outside all day, spraying them with water to cool them down and organising quiet activities in the shade.

“I make them go in the playground with books, in the shade, they must stay seated,” said teacher Valerie Prevost. “We tell them to dampen their caps, to drink regularly.”

Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Show all 30 1 /30 Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A zookeeper sprays water on Asian elephants at the Berlin Zoo on 25 June EPA Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures People cool off in a swimming pool in Hannover, Germany on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A woman sits on a lawn chair in Lake Wanasee in Berlin on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures An orangutan takes shelter from the sun under a blanket at the Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienaa on 25 June AP Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Visitors shelter from the heat under the Umbrella Sky Project, an art installation in Aix-en-Provence, France on 28 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A model boat drives past a couple as they bathe in a lake in Ertingen, Germany on 26 June AP Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A personal care worker visits the home of an elderly person to help him avoid heatstroke and dehydration during the heatwave in Clermont-Ferrand, France. The heat watch system has been implemented in France, meaning that vulnerable people will have increased access to aid for heat-related ailments AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A zookeeper applies sun cream to a tapir at the Serengeti Park in Hanover, Germany on 26 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures One motorist in Brandenburg, Germany was stopped by police on account of his tactic for keeping cool on 25 June Brandenburg Police Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A German Police helicopter pours water over a forest fire near Lieberoser Heide in Germany on 25 June Reuters Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Children jump into the water of Lake Geneva to cool off in Lutry, Switzerland on 25 June AP Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Parisians cool off in the fountains at the Trocadero Esplanade on 24 June AP Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A polar bear cools off in the Gelsenkirchen zoo in western Germany on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A woman plays in the in the fountains at the Trocadero Esplanade on 24 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Children play in Lake Walensee in Switzerland on the evening of 25 June EPA Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A refreshments table of water and syrups is laid out at an old folks home in Le Bouscat, France. Due to the heat, extra care provisions are available for the vulnerable in France Reuters Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A meerkat reaches for frozen food at the Berlin Zoo on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures People ride down the Old Danube in Vienna on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A boy plunges into a swimming pool in Essen, Germany on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A pigeon drinks from a fountain in Mulhouse, France on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Parisians rest in the shade down by the Seine on 26 June AP Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A boy jumps into the canal near Reims in northeastern France on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures People bathe at Amager in Copenhagen, Denmark on 25 June EPA Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A walrus feeds on an ice cake filled with frozen fish as her baby looks on i Hamburg Zoo, Germany on 26 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures Children play in a fountain in Nice, France on 26 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A couple steers an electric boat down the Old Danube in Vienna on 25 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A polar bear cools off at the Hamburg Zoo in Germany AP Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures A woman cools of in a water fountain on 26 June AFP/Getty Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures People lounge on the shore of the Baths of Paquis in Genevs on 25 June EPA Europe seeks relief in scorching Saharan heatwave: In pictures People enjoy the weather in Lake Walensee in Switzerland on 25 June EPA

Four people died in drowning accidents attributed to thermal shock, the French Ministry of Solidarity and Health said in a statement.

Some accused the government of going overboard in its reaction, but the prime minister Edouard Philippe defended the efforts of authorities after 15,000 people died in a heatwave in 2003.

“This heatwave is exceptional by its intensity and its earliness,” he said. “Measures have been taken for the most vulnerable people. But given the intensity of the heatwave, it’s the entire population who must be careful today ... both for oneself and for loved ones and neighbours.”

Until Friday, the country’s hottest day on record in France had been 12 August 2003, when the mercury hit 44.1C during the deadly heatwave.

Temperature records for June were broken across central Europe, with meteorologists blaming the continent’s extreme weather on a bubble of scorching Saharan air, high pressures across the continent and a storm stalling over the Atlantic.

In Spain, heatstroke reportedly claimed the life of a 17-year-old farm worker, as he cooled off in a Cordoba swimming pool, and an 80-year-old man on a street in Valladolid.

On Friday, firefighters were still struggling to contain wildfires that have devastated 10,000 hectares of Catalonia.

The Italian Ministry of Health also issued a red alert warning in more than a dozen cities after a homeless man died of suspected heatstroke in the streets of Milan and another in the Marche region, Il Globo reported.

In Germany, a man was cautioned after being caught driving a scooter naked, apparently to cool down. And in Belgium, two English bulldogs died after being left in a car in Mons, veterinarian Pascal Lafosse told local media.

“We have known that heatwaves are getting worse due to climate change for a number of decades now,” Dann Mitchell, the atmospheric science lecturer at the University of Bristol, said.