Death toll from French heat wave 'could soar'

The biggest French funeral home operator estimated about 13,600 more people will have died this month in France compared with last August, raising new worries today about the fallout from a deadly heat wave.

The estimate from funeral home operator OGF was more than two and a half times the highest government estimate so far from heat-related deaths during the record hot spell in the first two weeks of August.

In a statement, OGF said it compiled the estimate based on the first three weeks of August, plus projections for the remaining days of the month.

An estimated 13,632 more people will have died by the end of the month compared to August 2002, OGF predicted, with 3,425 of the deaths in the Paris metropolitan area alone.

Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei said on Monday that it was “plausible” that up to 5,000 people may have died in France, almost twice as many as previously feared.

But he insisted that figure was a hypothesis and that the final toll was not expected for several weeks.