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In pictures: Britain basks in hottest day of the year so far

Britain basked in the hottest day of the year so far on Saturday, with temperatures hitting 34C in some parts of the country.

A new record temperature for 2019 was set on Saturday, with 34C (93.2F) recorded at Heathrow and elsewhere in west London - just short of the 35.6C (96F) June record set in 1976.

People flocked to the seaside to make the most of the hot weather on Saturday, while Tesco said sales of barbecue food had soared.

The supermarket predicted it would sell more than one million packs of sausages, 650,000 packs of burgers and 50,000 disposable barbecues over the weekend.

Temperatures were set to drop on Sunday and into the week, despite remaining warm.

Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill said: "It will be nowhere near as hot as yesterday; today (Sunday) we're looking at 26 to 28 degrees in East Anglia, London and parts of Kent.”

Several European countries have reported record temperatures this week, including France which hit an all-time heat record of 44.3C (111F) on Friday.

Going into the week, rain is predicted through central parts of England on Monday and there is also a threat on Tuesday and Thursday, with dry conditions forecast for the rest of the week and sunny spells and average temperatures ahead.