Las Médulas (Spain) (AFP) - A young boy died of heatstroke in Italy while wildfires threatened a UNESCO site in Spain and French cities saw record temperatures, as a heatwave baked Europe on Monday.

Many towns and cities in France, Italy and the Balkans were put on red alert due to the heat.

Wildfires fanned by strong winds forced the evacuations of thousands of people throughout the continent and threatened popular tourist sites in Turkey and Spain.

The four-year-old Romanian boy who died in Italy succumbed days after being found unconscious in his family’s car on the island of Sardinia.

The news came as Italy’s health ministry issued a red alert warning for seven major cities, including Bologna and Florence.

Some 11 Italian cities are on red alert for Tuesday, and 16 cities on Wednesday. Red alerts were also announced in southern France and on the Adriatic and Ionian coasts in the Balkans.

“The heatwave currently affecting France, Spain, and the Balkan countries is not surprising. It is driven by a persistent heat dome over Europe,” Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the meteorology department in Britain’s University of Reading, told AFP.

“Heatwaves don’t roar like storms – they creep in quietly, but can be just as deadly.”

- UNESCO site damaged -

A blaze, which broke out on Sunday, damaged a UNESCO World Heritage-listed Roman-era mining site at Les Medulas in northwestern Spain – famed for its striking red landscape – and prompted hundreds of residents to evacuate.

High temperatures and winds of up to 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph) created “many difficulties” for firefighters struggling to contain the wildfire, said Juan Carlos Suarez-Quinones, the Castile and Leon regional environment minister.

“We will not allow people to return until safety in their communities is absolutely guaranteed,” he told reporters, estimating that about 700 people had been displaced.

Spain has been in the grip of a heatwave for the past week, with temperatures nearing 40C in many areas and fuelling wildfires.

In the southern tourist town of Tarifa, more than 2,000 people were evacuated, some from hotels and beaches, after a fire that had been subdued on Friday flared up again, with more than 100 firefighters battling the flames.

In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters were battling three large wildfires in the centre and north of the country, while Morocco is sending two aircraft to help fight the fires after two Portuguese planes broke down.

In Italy, around 190 firefighters and the army were tackling a wildfire on Mount Vesuvius that caused the closure of the national park to tourists.

- 20 arrested in Albania -

People were evacuated from dozens of homes in the Balkans as firefighters battled blazes in Albania, Montenegro and Croatia, where red alerts were announced.

In Albania, hundreds of firefighters and soldiers had subdued most of the nearly 40 fires that flared up in the last 24 hours, according to the defence ministry, but more than a dozen were still active.

Since the start of July, nearly 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) have been scorched nationwide, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

Police allege that many of the blazes were deliberately lit, with more than 20 people arrested in recent weeks.

Just outside the capital of neighbouring Montenegro, where temperatures soared to 40C, fire crews managed to save dozens of homes when a blaze broke out in inaccessible terrain on Monday.

In Croatia, around 150 firefighters also spent the night defending homes from a blaze near the port city of Split.

In the northwestern Turkish province of Canakkale, more than 2,000 people were evacuated and 77 people received hospital treatment for smoke inhalation after several fires broke out around the tourist village of Guzelyali, authorities said.

Several homes and cars caught ablaze, according to images shown on Turkish media, while more than 760 firefighters, 10 aeroplanes, nine helicopters and more than 200 vehicles were deployed to battle the flames.

Turkey had just experienced its hottest July since records began 55 years ago.

- French records -

Temperature records were broken in at least four weather stations in southern France, as the government called for vigilance.

The southwestern city of Bordeaux hit a record 41.6C while all-time records were also broken at meteorological stations in Bergerac, Cognac and Saint Girons, according to the national weather service, Meteo France.

The heatwave, the country’s second this summer, began on Friday and was forecast to last possibly until August 19 or 20.

On Monday, 12 French departments were placed on red alert, the country’s highest heat warning, with four more expected on Tuesday.