France, June 20 -- France's weather service placed 60 of the country's 101 departments on orange heatwave alert - its second-highest warning - throughout Saturday and Sunday.

Ten north-central departments were also on alert for violent storms forecast to arrive on Saturday evening.

The heatwave, which extends over much of western Europe, is already the second of the year, after a scorching week in May broke records across the continent.

The UK, Spain, Switzerland and Germany have all also raised alert levels for the coming days, as have some cities in northern and central Italy.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is amplifying such extremes, with extreme heat, droughts and floods becoming more intense and frequent.

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