Inmates at a prison in southwestern France are struggling to cope as a heatwave grips the region, with high temperatures set to persist through the weekend.

Fans hummed in every corner, and sheets hung from windows at an overcrowded prison near the city of Toulouse, where inmates tried to cool down as temperatures pushed past 36 degrees Celsius, an AFP journalist observed on Thursday.

Southern France is in the grip of a heatwave, and for inmates at the Seysses detention centre, that heat is “unbearable”, one detainee said.

But like many prisons in France, Seysses is overcrowded — in June, it held on average more than twice its capacity.

“Having two people per cell has become the exception,” said one guard, whose name like all the detainees interviewed cannot be published.

With detenti

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