LONDON (Reuters) -Four people died in Spain, two in France and two in Italy as an early summer heatwave continued to grip much of Europe on Wednesday, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant.

Two people were found dead by firefighters tackling a blaze in Spain's Catalonia region on Tuesday, as Europe endures scorching temperatures during the ongoing heatwave. In a statement, Catalan authorities said the two bodies were found after firefighters extinguished a fire in the Torrefeta area, near the town of Coscó.

The heat wave in Europe helped fuel a wildfire in Spain that killed two farmers, taking hundreds of firefighters to bring it under control.