France has seen 301 drownings since 19 June, a government minister has said, linking the sharp rise in deaths compared to last year to the 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 been hit by heatwaves, which have triggered massive wildfires that scorched thousands of hectares of land.

Ferrari said people have 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 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 temperatures around the world – but particularly in Europe.

It is the fastest warming continent, heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus climate service.

The June heatwave saw a nuclear power plant in southwest France temporarily shut down because water temperatures in the River Garonne topped 28C. Under French laws, water used to cool the reactors at the Golfech plant must not exceed that temperature.

Some monuments like the Eiffel Tower also decided to close early because of the high temperatures in Paris during the June heatwave.

The dry conditions also saw wildfires spread across France, with the Gironde, around the city of Bordeaux, in the south-west of the country being the worse affected area, with more than 200,000 people being forced from their homes in late July.

France has logged 7,300 excess deaths between late May and 22 July, according to provisional figures from the public health authorities.