No firm Europe-wide tally was available, but according to official figures published in Italy, some 60 elderly people have died nationwide, mainly in the northern cities of Milan and Turin, with heat-related complaints to blame.

In France -- where temperatures have hovered around the 40-degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) mark for days -- doctors said that at least 100 people had succumbed to the blistering heat, while the death toll in Spain climbed to 27.

The Pompes Funebres Generales, one of France's biggest undertakers, on Wednesday said the death rate had jumped 37 percent nationwide and 49 percent in the Paris area last week, as compared with the same period in 2002.

It was not clear how much of the increase was due to the heatwave. But in Paris a police officers' trade union, Synergie Officiers, spoke of a "massive loss of life in Paris these past weeks."

One of the leaders, Mohamed Douhane, said the union had asked the police administration to call on the army to remove the bodies of the deceased, as undertakers were "overwhelmed."

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin ordered the activation of a emergency plan aimed at providing more hospital beds in the departments around Paris. The plan was originally drawn up to deal with epidemics, disasters or terrorist attacks.

As the French government struggled to counter claims that its slow response had sparked a severe health emergency, Parisians breathed easier as the mercury hit only 35 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, and was expected to hit just 29 degrees on Thursday.

"We're going to see temperatures drop 10 degrees over the next week," the country's national weather service Meteo France predicted.

Forecasters in Britain, Germany and Spain also said temperatures would let up by week's end, with Britain's Met Office saying London would feel cooler and fresher" at 24 degrees on Thursday.

Britain was just one of several European countries to shatter all-time record temperatures in recent days, with the mercury surpassing 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) for the first time in recorded history on Sunday.

An emergency of sorts broke out in the country as giant brewing firm Carlsberg-Tetley said Wednesday that unprecedented demand had forced it to ship in extra supplies of lager from Denmark.

Germany recorded its highest-ever recorded overnight temperature near Neustadt, in the west of the country, where the thermometer peaked at 27.6 degrees Celsius.

Divers Tuesday recovered four phosphorous bombs, two incendiary bombs and a blast bomb off Friedrichshafen, southwest Germany, after they were exposed by the receding waters of Lake Constance, police said.

South of Berlin on Wednesday, firemen brought under control a fire next to a former Soviet military zone that still serves as an ammunition depot. In Brandenburg, also in the Berlin area, it took firemen two days to bring a forest fire under control.

And the Edersee, Germany's second biggest artificial lake in central Hesse state, has revealed the traces of villages submerged in 1914 when it was formed.

Although the unseasonable heat looked set to let up in the north, it continued to fuel devastating forest fires across southern Europe, with firefighters in Portugal battling blazes that threatened the historic port of Lagos in the tourist-packed southern Algarve province.

In Croatia, suffering through its worst drought in 50 years, a fresh blaze broke out on the tourist island of Hvar off the Adriatic coast.

In nearby Bosnia-Hercegovina, firefighters called on the army on Wednesday to help contain a fire that broke out in the south of the country.

A spate of summer forest fires have thus far consumed tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of woodlands and claimed 25 lives -- 15 in Portugal, five in Spain and five in France, where fire brigades also were battling stubborn blazes in the south.

In Italy, authorities sent a 24-hour weather warning as fierce thunderstorms and heavy rains were expected in the tourist-packed Italian Alps from Thursday afternoon onwards.

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TERRA.WIRE