by Italy offered the pensioner free entry to swimming pools and air -conditioned museums in the middle of the leaked temperatures in Europe.
Heights of 43 ° C were predicted in parts of southern Spain and Portugal, since a large part of the continent remains under the grip of an intensive heat wave.
In Rome, free access to swimming pools are given over 70s, while in Venice over 75 guided tours by museums and public buildings are offered free of charge, while the authorities keep the pensioners away from the poor heat.
In Bologna, seven “climate accommodation” with air conditioning was also set up, while ambulances were made available in tourist hotspots in southern Europe.
The initiatives were introduced when extreme heat warnings were set up in 21 Italian cities, including Naples, Venice, Rome, Florence and Milan.
In the regions of Sicily and Liguria, the hottest parts of the day were prohibited outdoors.
Mario Guarino, the Vice President of the Italian Society of Emergency Medicine, said that emergency departments all over Italy would have reported an increase of around 10 percent of Heatstroke’s cases.
He said: “It is mainly older people, cancer patients or homeless people, the dehydration, heating and fatigue.”
Hospitals, including the Ospedale Dei Colli in Naples, have set up special heat shaft paths to quickly pursue the access of the patients to treatments such as cold water immersion, added Mr. Guarino.
The extreme temperatures were also felt elsewhere in Europe, whereby forest fires on Thursday swept through the Greek coastal cities of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari, destroyed houses and force more than 1,000 people to evacuate.
Strong winds and sky -high temperatures made the fire extremely difficult to be saved from a beach with 11 tourists, the authorities said.
The British health authority warns that extreme heat is associated with an increase in deaths, especially among the 65-year-olds and or with existing health conditions.
The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) also warned that four “potentially dangerous” species in the warming of the sea temperatures could penetrate the Mediterranean.
ISPRA asked the fishermen and tourists to report sightings of the poisonous lionfish, silver cheek toadfish, dark backfoot and marble spine, which could be attracted by the waters in front of southern Italy in extreme heat.
Scientists have warned that climate change plays a crucial role in the heat waves that sweep across Europe, especially in cities in which the effect “Urban Heat Island” means that the temperatures are strengthened in close -packed buildings.
Emanuela Piervitali, a researcher at ISPRA, said: “The heat waves in the Mediterranean region have become more and more intensive in recent years, with the tip of 37 degrees or even more in cities where the urban heat island effect increases the temperatures even further.
“In the future, a further increase in temperature and heat extremes will be expected. Therefore, we have to get used to temperatures that are even higher than those that we are now experiencing,” she added.
In 2003, more than 70,000 people died during an extreme heat wave in Europe, of which a disproportionate number was over 75.
