A blistering heatwave sweeping through Europe this week brought blackouts to France and fears of heat stroke for Wimbledon tennis fans, but meant a range of interesting ice creams for the continent’s zoo animals.

With temperatures pushing 40 degrees Celsius, the UN warned heatwaves were growing more frequent and intense due to climate change, and called on more countries to put warning systems in place to inform people of the dangers. 

At the Safaripark Beekse Bergen zoo in the Netherlands, staff had already put their emergency procedures in place - including ice cubes for baboons, cold showers for the elephants, and special meat- and fruit-flavoured ice cream  for the ring-tailed lemurs.

Not to be outdone, especially on the subject of ice cream, Italy’s main zoo in Rome offered gelato to its orangutans with a choice of flavours including  fresh fruit and vegetables, or dried figs topped with eggs and insects. 

Humans were having a tougher time, with around a million homes in western France left without power overnight on Tuesday after the heatwave moved in from Spain, and another blackout striking Brittany Wednesday morning, cutting electricity to 100,000 houses.

The Wimbledon tennis tournament in London saw the hottest day of play ever at 35.7 degrees Celsius, more than a degree hotter than the record set in 1976.