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PARIS, July 25-- Paris broke all-time high mercury on Thursday afternoon as intense heatwaves triggered red alert, Meteo France said. The French capital has just broken its absolute heat record, registering 42.6 degrees Celsius at 16:30 local time in Paris-Montsouris, said the country's meteorological services. Meteo France revealed that for much of the northern cities, including Calais, Lille, Amiens, records for temperatures were broken as the mercury remained high, even during the night. In Paris, the previous record for July stood at 40.4 degrees Celsius in 1947. Thursday is the hottest day of this heatwave episode in the country's northern regions. Earlier, the agency forecasted that in the hottest part of the day, the temperatures under shelter will be between 40 and 42 degrees Celsius, very occasionally 43 degrees in certain districts of the capital. On Wednesday, the national weather center raised the heatwave alert to red in 20 departments, the highest alert on the agency's four-scale system. As hot spell is still engulfing 90 percent of French territory, the warning will be maintained till Friday afternoon as the mercury is set to continue climbing in the zones concerned due to persistent hot and dry air. Some 60 regions remained on heatwave orange alert till Friday. "It has never happened. At this level of temperature, one has to be very careful," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said, adding "With a heat of such intensity... we call for extreme vigilance." | 
