Europe heatwave live: UK issues rare red temperature warnings; French PM to hold crisis meeting after heat deaths

Temperatures could hit 38-40C in parts of England and Wales, smashing June record set in 1976; red alerts in France after 19 heat deaths

• Two children found dead in car in France as heatwave hits Europe

The number of people exposed to dangerous heat stress worldwide has risen sharply over the last half century propelled by climate change, according to a study released as Europe sweltered through a punishing heatwave.

Heat stress – the name given to the hazardous build-up of body heat caused by soaring temperatures, humidity and other factors – is one of the most common ways that weather kills people.

That might not sound like so much. But that’s an extra approximately one billion people that are seeing at least some extreme heat stress now that wouldn’t have done in the 1970s.