As Europe saw the mercury rise with a heatwave sweeping much of the continent, some in Germany have been attempting to keep cool in less-than-conventional ways.

Police in the Brandenburg lander, north-east Germany, revealed on Wednesday that they had recently cautioned a man for riding on a motorbike wearing only a helmet and sandals.

In a tongue-in-cheek social media post, they joked that he must have been attempting "the Naked Man" seduction technique from the How I Met Your Mother television show. They also said when questioned about his state of undress, the man replied: "It's too hot!"

"We could not disagree with that, but asked him to put on his pants and then let him continue his ride," the Brandenburg police explained.

"In principle, naked driving is not forbidden. But if other people feel disturbed by this, there may be a complaint," they added.

They then proceeded to ask their followers to caption the pictures, using the hashtags #speechless, #heat, #safetyfirst and #livingontheedge.

Temperatures are expected to exceed 40 Celsius in many parts of the continent on Wednesday and Thursday. The German meteorology agency also announced that the 1947 heat record for June had been broken in Coschen, near the border with Poland, where 38.6 C was recorded.

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