Sri Lanka, July 2 -- Italy banned outdoor work in some regions during the warmest hours, France shut schools and part of the Eiffel Tower and Spain confirmed its hottest June on record as a severe heat wave gripped Europe, triggering widespread health alerts.

The risks of working outside in searing temperatures were highlighted as Spanish trade unions attributed the death of a construction worker near Bologna on Monday to the heat. In Barcelona, authorities were looking into whether the death of a street sweeper over the weekend was also heat-related.

Turkey continued to battle wildfires, which forced the temporary evacuation of around 50,000 people on Monday in areas surrounding the city of Izmir, the province of Manisa and Hatay in th...