Shop trumpets its £30 ice-cream cornet as a solution to heatwave

The heatwave may have left many prepared to go to extreme measures to cool down - but few are likely to fork out the prices one London shop has opted to charge for an ice-cream - £30.

La Maison du Chocolat in Knightsbridge prepared 10 of the pricey ten-inch desserts for sale. For the £30, consumers get a choice of flavours and a chance to sample Parisian chocolates.

Outside London, the heat was expected to bring transport problems. Highways Agency predicted busy roads, as many schools break up and families take to the roads this weekend.

The hot and humid weather in Britain is likely to continue for much of today, but heavy, thunder and showers are expected by this evening, leaving Sunday drier and cooler.

Britain's heatwave is doing little to dissuade people from seeking sun abroad - the Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) predicted 2.1m people would pass through British airports between today and Monday.

A Met Office spokesman said France in particular was likely to be "exceptionally hot". A heatwave has also struck much of America, where severe temperatures - reaching 38C in some parts - have caused the deaths of 22 people.

Speed restrictions imposed on the railways for safety reasons would be assessed by the hour over the weekend, a spokesman for Network Rail said.

The RSPCA warned dog owners not to leave pets in cars, and said at least two dogs had died of heat exhaustion in vehicles this month. The hot weather has also sparked major grass fires at a nature reserve on the edge of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, and in Essington, in the West Midlands. Any hopes that the next week may bring with it cooler weather was quashed by the Met Office, which said that by Wednesday, we can expect to see very hot and humid weather in the UK and much of Western Europe.