A woman who spent six days trapped in her overturned car during the recent record-breaking heatwave has said the thought of her children kept her alive.

Corine Bastide veered off a road in Belgium as temperatures soared to their highest level in the country's history.

Her vehicle rolled over near Liege, a city in the southeast of the country, leaving her stuck inside with a spine injury.

Despite the desperate attempts of relatives to contact her, the pain she was under meant she could not reach her mobile phone.

Outside, the heat broke records across Europe with the mercury reaching 40C in Belgium and France, Germany and Britain all registering the highest temperatures in their recorded history.

Now Ms Bastide has told how she managed to battle the heat frazzling her car, and survive the ordeal.

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Speaking to local media from her hospital bed, she said: "The first night, my mobile didn't stop ringing. I tried to answer it but I couldn't because my arm was too sore.

"The next day the phone was not ringing anymore – I knew I had no battery.

"The most difficult thing was lying on pieces of glass. I tried to hoist myself up but I had the impression that my back was being torn."

As heatwave temperatures soared and Ms Bastide grew increasingly dehydrated, it was ultimately up to nature and some quick-thinking to save her life.

"I also used a wet branch to create the sensation of moisture in my mouth. But I didn't feel hungry."

Temperatures in Belgium reached over 40C (104F) last week, but Ms Bastide survived on rain water she collected during a weekend storm.

Corine Bastide survived in her overturned car for six days as the rays beat down from above (AP)

But it was a thought closer to home that pulled her through the ordeal.

"I thought so much about my children, and for me, it was important that I do my best to do everything I had planned with my children - it was them who gave me the strength to hold on," she said.

"I wanted to live for my children, I did not want them to think that I had made a mistake, a suicide."

It was only when relatives were putting up missing posters this week that they spotted the vehicle – and her cries for help.

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Eventually a passerby found her, who she calls her 'guardian angel'. "'Corine, is it you?' they asked. They knew my name."

Her son reportedly told state broadcaster RTBF that she is undergoing surgery in hospital and on the road to recovery.