France has seen 301 drownings since 19 June, a government minister has said, linking the sharp rise in deaths from last year to a series of prolonged heatwaves.

Sports and Youth Minister Marina Ferrari told France Inter radio the number of deaths – a 14% hike on 2025 – was a “tragic toll”.

France, Spain and Italy have all been hit by heatwaves that have triggered massive wildfires that have scorched thousands of hectares of land this summer.

Ferrari said people had been taking risks by going into the water, adding: “Many deadly accidents have occurred in areas that are not authorised or supervised for swimming.”

She said a number of the drownings were recorded in “open water, in canals for example”.

Ferrari said the government was working with regional authorities “to improve swimming areas and make things safer”.

Speaking on Friday, she added that “many drownings, particularly among the elderly, occurred in individual pools”.

The minister said that sudden immersion in cold water on a hot day could cause shock, and that in some cases “people can also exceed their physical capabilities”.

In June, Ferrari warned that too many people were trying to cool off in rivers and canals without necessarily taking the risks into account.

Climate change is driving up global average temperatures, making heatwaves more frequent and intense.

This has been felt acutely in Europe, which is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service., external