More than a thousand schools were closed in France on Tuesday and the top floor of the Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists as a severe heatwave continued to grip Europe, triggering health alerts across the region.

The heat was so expansive that mountaintops, including the French Alps, that are usually frozen from snowpack saw record temperatures. Heat records were set for June in Spain and Portugal.

Europe is sweltering under an intense heatwave, as temperatures soar across Spain, Portugal, France and Italy for one of the hottest summer starts ever recorded.