British tourist, 54, found dead on his sunbed in Crete

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In the UK, the Met Office has said temperatures could reach 43C this week – a huge leap from the previous record of 38.7C set just three years ago – and experts have warned the heatwave may lead to thousands of excess deaths. Heatwaves are the deadliest extreme weather event in the UK, and official figures show that two heat episodes in 2021, which were both less extreme than this week’s, led to some 1,600 excess deaths. “I think that, assuming the weather forecasts are roughly correct, it’s very likely that there will be hundreds or thousands of excess deaths from the heat in the next few days,” Professor Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, told The Guardian on Friday. I hope that happens, but I fear there will still be excess death on quite a scale.” The government has declared the UK’s first-ever national heat emergency, while the Met Office also issued a “red” alert for heat for the first time, warning of “population-wide adverse health effects”, which it said could cause “serious illness or danger to life”.