Boy, 3, dies in locked car as heatwave grips France

A three-year-old boy has been found dead in a car in the Paris region on Thursday, making this the third such child fatality during the extreme weather sweeping across Europe this week.

The boy's parents found him in "the car outside their home.” Civil defence confirmed his death in the town of Saint-Gratien in the Paris suburbs.

France on Wednesday recorded its hottest day since measurements began in 1947, with the national average temperature reaching 30°C. Temperatures in the capital reached 40.3°C on Wednesday, topping 40°C for the fourth time in 150 years. 

A red heatwave alert is in place across Paris, and the Eiffel Tower shut early on Tuesday. 

Paris mayor Emmanuel Gregoire earlier on Thursday reported that deaths were on the rise in the capital but did not give a specific figure.

The boy had slipped away from his parents' supervision in Saint-Gratien, in Val-d'Oise, before getting into the car alone. 

An initial investigation found his mother had been napping with the couple's other 18-month-old child when he slipped away, while his father was in the garden shed.

The father had asked his son to take a nap in the living room before the accident. 

After waking, the boy went outside to the car. The doors had been unlocked with the child safety lock engaged, and he then locked himself inside, trapping himself in the vehicle.

He was later found unresponsive in the locked car, which had been parked in the driveway of the family's home. 

His parents performed CPR before emergency services arrived. 

According to the Pontoise prosecutor's office, he was pronounced dead on Tuesday evening at 7.35pm. 

His mother was left in a state of shock and was hospitalised.

The death follows another tragedy in southern France on Monday, when two children aged two and four were found dead in their family's car in a residential parking lot in the town of Carpentras