Majorca on alert as the heat is on

The emergency services are warning that heat like this early in the season can be especially hazardous to public health since people have not yet become accustomed to it.

In Palma it wasn't just the people who suffered, so do did the carriage horses. Seven drivers were penalised by the police for working their animals between midday and 5pm, which is prohibited when the island is registering the type of temperatures it was yesterday.

At 2.30pm, the alarm was raised after a bush fire broke out at Secar de la Real, near the monastery next to Son Espases Hospital. Firefighters from the Palma brigade, with aerial support from a forestry commission helicopter and two firefighting planes, brought the blaze under control by 5pm. Seven hectares were affected.

As a result, the Ibanat nature agency has banned all fires until this current heat alert is stood down.