Many people are flocking to lakes and swimming pools to cool down in the soaring temperatures.

But in the south of Germany, a heated row has broken out over topless sunbathing. 

It was sparked after a security guard had ordered a group of women who were sunbathing topless on the banks of the Isar river at the weekend to put their bikini tops back on.

But the move apparently backfired, according to the Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, which quoted another sunbather as saying that she and others took their bikini tops off “out of solidarity”.

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DPA

With debate over the incident heating up, the Green party brought the issue to Munich's city council.

“For me, it's incomprehensible if men can lie in the sun topless but not women,” said the Greens' Dominik Krause, among the initiators of the council debate.

An urgent motion was introduced in a city council meeting Wednesday, reading “the bathing costume statutes of the state capital Munich will be amended to the effect that bathing costumes must completely cover the primary sex organs” – to allow topless bathing.

According to local media, being nude in public as part of the practice of FKK – Freikörperkultur, an informal movement that translates to free body culture, is only permitted in six designated areas in Munich, such as the famous Englischer Garten.

Heatwave across the country

The heat was also causing problems in the rest of the country. As The Local reported, drivers have been urged to slow down on the Autobahn in case roads buckle in the heat. 

On the north coast, sweltering temperatures bent railway tracks out of shape on a popular tourist route near Rostock on the Baltic Sea and an official said a track-laying company were trying to fix the damage.

Meanwhile, in Brandenburg a man was stopped by the police while riding his moped completely naked. 

As contributions and queries poured in over whether the man flouted any rules, police clarified that it was not illegal to go around nude in public, but only so long as no one files a complaint.

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