3,000 die in French heatwave

by IAN SPARKS, Daily Mail

The French heatwave has claimed as many as 3,000 lives, Paris admitted last night.

It has launched an emergency medical plan for the French capital to cope with the growing death toll brought on by two weeks of 100f heat.

Most of the victims were elderly and died from dehydration or hyperthermia.

As Parisian undertakers prepared to work through this weekend's bank holiday to cope with the increased number of bodies, the government yesterday came under attack for "seriously underestimating the crisis".

Patrick Pelloux, head of the association of hospital emergency doctors, said: "We are talking about thousands of victims, even though we can't yet fully measure the phenomenon.

"More could have been done by the government. Most ministers were too reluctant to cut short their summer vacations and return to work to deal with the crisis."

But Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin - who last night launched the emergency plan to provide extra hospital beds and staff and set up temporary morgues - said: "We do not accept the blame for this. I feel the government is doing everything it can to help."

The heat-related death toll was yesterday branded a "massacre" by the French newspaper, Liberation.

Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, who has come under intense pressure, admitted: "The death figures are high, perhaps even very high.

"We can now talk about what happened as a true epidemic, with everything that means in terms of the number of victims."

Health ministry spokesman Lucien Abenhaim added: "The figure goes as high as 3,000, essentially made up of elderly or fragile people whose deaths have been brought on by the heat."

Earlier this week, doctors had warned that the elderly were "dropping like flies" in the intense heat.

Most watched News videos