A nine-year-old boy from Poland drowned on July 25 2009 at Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort of Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) after falling off an air mattress.
 
Lifeguards attempted to rescue the child but it was too late, Bulgarian media said. News agency BTA said that the child’s mother had not been watching the boy because she had been looking after a young baby.
 
The tragedy happened as Bulgaria faced scorching temperatures, with authorities urging people to exercise caution in the heat, while in some places road traffic was banned and in the capital city Sofia, the Bulgarian Red Cross handed out free mineral water at two locations in the centre of the city.
 
Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said that in some places in the country, temperatures already exceeded 40 degrees before noon.
 
Temperatures in central Sofia were estimated at 38 degrees C, while news agency Focus said that in the afternoon in Plovdiv, it was 38 degrees in the shade and 45 degrees in the direct sun.
 
Forty people were treated in hospital in Plovdiv, including four who had heart attacks, while others had heat exhaustion.

In Petrich, temperatures passed 40 degrees while Veliko Turnovo was reported to be close to 39 degrees at mid-afternoon.
 
Sofia banned vehicles heavier than 20 tons from using main roads and boulevards in the city from noon until 7pm while temperatures were higher than 35 degrees, Focus said, although the agency reported that the ban did not apply to the Ring Road.
 
BNT quoted specialists as advising that air conditioners so should not be set so as to provide an indoor temperature that varied from temperatures outdoors by more than 10 to 12 degrees Celsius.
 
Dimitar Dimitrov of the ambulance service said that it was unhealthy to run air conditioners at temperatures lower than 18 degrees Celsius.
Traffic authorities said that even motorists using car air conditioning were at risk while travelling in the direct sun, and this worsened the risk of fatigue, which could be as dangerous as driving drunk.
 
Elsewhere in South Eastern Europe, the forecast for July 25 was for 40 degrees in Skopje, while Romania was set for temperatures of up to 39 degrees.
 
Focus said that storms were possible later on July 25 in northern and central Romania.
 
The forecast in Greece was for temperatures of up to 43 degrees.
 
On July 24, the BBC said that thousands of firefighters were battling to bring under control summer wildfires that are spreading across parts of southern Europe.
 
At least eight people had died in fires that have struck Spain, France, Greece and the Italian island of Sardinia in the past few days, the BBC said.
 
Spain has been hardest hit, with at least seven big fires in the south and east. Strong winds have fanned the flames during the hot dry weather.
 
A European Union monitoring agency warned that the risk of fire along the Mediterranean coastline remained high with soaring temperatures predicted for the coming days.