Two young brothers, aged two and four, were found dead inside their family car on Monday afternoon in Carpentras, a town in the Vaucluse department of southeastern France. Firefighters called to a residential parking area at around 13:20 local time discovered both children in cardiorespiratory arrest; resuscitation attempts at the scene were unsuccessful.

According to the local prosecutor, Hélène Mourges, the exact cause of death has not yet been established, but “the heatwave is the main line of inquiry.” Temperatures in Carpentras reached 39°C on the day, part of an exceptional heat episode that has placed roughly half of France’s administrative departments under red alert. The children’s 33-year-old mother was taken into care by emergency services in a state of shock and has not yet been questioned, the prosecutor’s office confirmed.

French media reports, citing initial witness accounts, suggest the children may have climbed into the vehicle without their mother’s knowledge after she returned from a shopping trip, and subsequently became trapped inside the hot car. Authorities have not confirmed how the boys entered the vehicle, how long they remained there, or the precise sequence of events. Forensic examinations are only beginning, and the prosecutor has stressed that the heatwave hypothesis, while strongly favoured, awaits medical-legal confirmation.

The deaths occurred on what the national meteorological service, Météo-France, described as potentially the hottest day ever recorded in the country, with an intensity it compared to the lethal 2003 heatwave that caused nearly 15,000 excess deaths. Across France, 49 departments were placed on red alert, schools were closed or adapted their hours, and emergency call volumes rose by 30–40 percent, according to medical services. In the same weekend, authorities reported three elderly people dead in their homes from heat-related causes in the southwest, and at least 10 drowning fatalities nationwide as people sought relief in water.

The investigation in Carpentras remains open, with no formal determination of cause of death. The prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial file and is awaiting the results of the ongoing medical-legal assessments.