France on Friday registered its highest-ever temperature, with 45.1 degrees Celsius having been recorded in Villevieille, a village in the southern department of Gard near Montpellier, state weather forecaster Meteo-France announced.

The temperature beat the previous record of 44.1 degrees Celsius that was recorded in Saint-Christol-les-Ales and Conqueyrac in August 2003.

According to Meteo-France, the new record makes France the seventh European country to have recorded a temperature that surpasses 45 degrees Celsius, along with Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and North Macedonia.