French authorities on Monday decided to lift the next-highest "orange" alert for a heatwave which they issued last week due to extreme hot weather which brought record-breaking temperatures to most French regions.
"Given the drop in temperatures announced for the coming days," the prefect of the Ile-de-France region decided to remove the heat advisory alert on July 1, the prefecture said in a press release.
"However, as a precaution, the state's services and that of Paris city hall as well as the health services maintain their vigilance during the next few days to identify and take care of any late effects of this heatwave on vulnerable people," it said.
Earlier on Monday, the national weather service, Meteo France, maintained the "orange" alert in 14 southeastern departments due to the persistent heatwave till Tuesday morning.
Over the weekend, the country's weather service increased the alert level from "orange" to "red" for the southern departments of Herault, Gard, Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhone for the first time since the warning system was introduced in 2004.
A total of 76 other departments, except Brittany in northwest France, remained on "orange" alert.
Last Friday afternoon, the temperature reached 45.9 degrees Celsius -- the highest on record -- in the southern city of Gallargues-le-Montueux. The previous record for June was 41.5 degrees Celsius. It was registered near Narbonne in southern France in 2003.
In the worst-hit Gard region in the south, several wildfires razed some 620 hectares of land and destroyed 11 houses and several vehicles.
According to local media reports, three people fell victim to the heatwave in France last week.
