A young boy died of heatstroke in Italy while wildfires threatened a UNESCO site in Spain and French cites saw record temperatures, as a heatwave baked Europe on Monday.

The four-year-old Romanian boy died days after being found unconscious in the family's car in Sardinia.

The boy was airlifted to a Rome hospital but died of irreversible brain damage, the hospital told AFP on Monday.

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, while around 190 firefighters and the army continue to tackle a wildfire on Mount Vesuvius that caused the closure of the national park to tourists.

Wildfires damaged a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site in northwestern Spain and forced evacuations in three Balkan countries as high temperatures fanned by strong winds left parts of Europe in flames.

Spanish firefighters struggled to contain a wildfire that damaged a Roman-era mining site in Las Medulas and prompted hundreds of residents to........

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