French heatwave drives sharp rise in mortality, health agency says

France recorded a nearly 30% increase in deaths during the week beginning June 22, the peak of a record-breaking heatwave that swept across the country, a report by Public Health France confirmed.

The agency said there had been "an increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week," while cautioning that the figure was "probably an underestimate," Le Monde reports.

The report showed that mortality in the Paris region rose by 62% during the same period, with a similar spike recorded in the Pays de la Loire region.

The findings come amid growing criticism from opposition politicians, who argue that the government's response to increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves has been inadequate. On Thursday, the Green Party submitted a motion of no confidence against the government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

France experienced an exceptional heatwave in June that lasted about 11 days, with temperatures exceeding 40°C in many parts of the country. The episode has been described as more intense than the devastating 2003 heatwave, which claimed around 15,000 lives, many of them elderly residents in nursing homes.

Despite the severity of this year's temperatures, officials believe the overall human toll will be significantly lower than in 2003, citing improvements in preparedness and public health measures.

"It will probably not be comparable," Health Minister Stéphanie Rist said, rejecting suggestions that this year's heatwave could produce a death toll similar to that of 2003.

Nicolas Revel, director general of the Paris public hospital system, said he expects the number of deaths linked to the June heatwave to remain below the 2003 disaster, but "probably" exceed last year's heatwave, which claimed 5,700 lives.

By Vafa Guliyeva