Ankara: Nearly 16,000 homes and businesses in France remained without electricity on Tuesday as an exceptional heat wave and recent storms continued to strain the country's power distribution network, grid operator Enedis said.

According to Anadolu Agency, as of 9 am local time (0700 GMT), around 15,900 customers were still without power in Paris and the northern departments of Nord and Aisne. Enedis reported that 8,100 homes and businesses were affected by outages due to what it described as an "extreme and widespread heat wave of unprecedented intensity and duration" combined with violent storms that struck on Saturday night. Of those affected, 6,600 customers were in Nord and 1,400 in Aisne.

Another 7,800 customers, mainly in Paris, were experiencing isolated outages linked to the exceptional heat. Enedis explained that persistently high daytime and nighttime temperatures had overheated asphalt surfaces, causing heat to accumulate underground and weaken parts of the electricity distribution network.

According to the operator, underground temperatures reached as high as 90C (194F) in some areas, causing older-generation cables to expand and increasing the risk of failures at network connections. More than 60,000 households have experienced power outages since Sunday during what French authorities have described as the country's most severe heat wave on record.

Enedis activated its rapid electricity intervention force (FIRE) last week to respond to the heightened risk of outages as extreme temperatures persisted.