France Restricts Access to Eiffel Tower Summit
1,900 Schools Closed in a Single Day
As a record-breaking heatwave sweeps across Europe, outdoor activities have been banned in several areas, and access to major tourist attractions such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, is being restricted.
According to CNN in the United States, The Guardian in the United Kingdom, and AFP on July 1 (local time), French authorities announced that, with a heatwave warning in effect nationwide, access to the top of the Eiffel Tower would be closed to visitors until July 2.
A notice posted on the Eiffel Tower’s official website stated, "We apologize for the inconvenience. Please protect yourself from the sun during periods of high temperatures and remember to stay hydrated regularly."
On this day alone, 1,900 schools in France were closed. The national weather agency forecast that temperatures in some regions of France would soar to between 40 and 41 degrees Celsius.
In Belgium, access to the Atomium, a popular tourist site in Brussels, was restricted for two days starting from this day. In Italy, outdoor work was banned from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the two major industrial hubs of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. As of this day, outdoor work bans were in place in 13 locations across Italy.
These measures are due to an unusually early and intense heatwave. According to Reuters, Spain recorded its highest-ever June temperatures, and some regions of Italy continued to experience extreme heat exceeding 40 degrees Celsius on this day. Even London, a city in Northern Europe, was gripped by the heatwave.
Clare Nullis, spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), commented, "This heatwave is extremely unusual for this time of year, but it is not unprecedented." She pointed out, "Extreme high temperatures that would typically occur later in the summer are happening now."
Fatalities have also been reported. The previous day, a 47-year-old man collapsed and died at a construction site in Emilia-Romagna. On this day, two more workers collapsed at another construction site, with one falling into a coma. In the afternoon, a child died inside a car in Catalonia amid the extreme heat.
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