Temperatures broke June records in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands on Friday as the death toll from Europe's heatwave climbed in Spain and France and authorities cancelled concerts and other public events because of health risks.

Germany's highest ever temperature of 41.3C was recorded provisionally in the south-western city of Saarbrücken, just over the border from France, which this week endured its hottest temperatures three days in a row.

Although France's heatwave has peaked, Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said the "emergence of deaths at home" was of particular concern.

World Meteorological Organization spokeswoman Clare Nullis warned of the "major impacts" to health, ecosystems, agriculture and labour, saying: "We need to get used to it, unfortunately."

Europe's deadly June heatwave has moved slowly north and east, and Belgian forecaster David Dehenauw said unofficially that 40C had been recorded in Kleine Brogel, close to the Dutch border.

A top temperature of 39.4C was recorded in the southern Dutch province of Limburg. Meanwhile, in the UK a provisional June record of 37.1C was recorded at Cavendish in Suffolk.

At least 150 million people across the European continent were facing temperatures higher than 35C on Friday, according to calculations by the AFP news agency.

Czech meteorologists believe a 2012 record temperature of 40.4C could be broken on Saturday, while Austrian forecasters believe the national record will fall on Sunday. Balkan countries are seeing extreme heat too, with up to 39C forecast in Serbia over the weekend.

In Switzerland, the Beznau nuclear power plant took both reactors of grid on Friday because the temperature in the River Aare reached 25C, which is considered too high to cool the reactors sufficiently.

The French health minister has warned that the extreme conditions will result in additional deaths, and an emergency plan has been put in place for all hospitals in the Paris region because of "multiple tensions" in healthcare.

In Marseille, an 18-month-old child died after being found in a car in a state of hyperthermia, in the latest such episode in France in a matter of days. A three-year-old became trapped in a car in Paris on Wednesday, and two young children lost their lives in a car in the southern town of Carpentras on Monday.

The number of deaths by drowning in France since the heatwave began has risen to 55. An estimated two-thirds of them had been swimming in unsupervised areas.

Spain's MoMo monitoring system, external for reporting temperature-related deaths has counted 327 fatalities between Sunday and Thursday that could be linked to the heat, and most of them have been recorded in the past two days.

The high temperatures have begun to subside in Spain, however a forest fire broke out north-east of Barcelona forcing 16,000 to stay in their homes on Friday morning. A man was arrested on suspicion of arson.

Little relief is expected in much of Europe over the weekend, and a glacier research team in Switzerland has warned that the heatwave is being felt in the mountains too.

The Zurich team says almost all the winter reserves built up on the glaciers are about to run out, most likely on Monday, at which point the glaciers will start melting.

That moment usually takes place in August, but Swiss researchers say the current course of glacial melting is almost as bad as in 2022, the worst year on record, when as much as 6% of the glaciers' mass was lost.