Deaths in France rise 29% amid record heat wave, health agency says – National
Deaths rose by nearly a third in France during the hottest week of a heat wave on record last month, the country's health authorities said on Friday, reporting at least 2,000 more deaths than last week when temperatures were already soaring and filling emergency wards with heatstroke victims.
New and incomplete figures from Public Health France double the initial estimate of at least 1,000 deaths it gave last Sunday. That previous tally included just three hot days of intense, deadly heat.
In Paris, funeral directors say they have struggled to find places to store bodies before they are buried or cremated, with some crematories saying they are full and having to turn away bodies.
The updated death toll figures from Public Health France cover the week of June 22 to June 28, when France saw its hottest days and records being broken due to high temperatures during the day and at night in many cities and towns across the country. The heat has also broken heat records in many other parts of Europe.
Public Health France said it had counted 8,973 deaths so far this week, warning that the number was still half. It said the initial total was 29 percent more than the 6,948 people who registered last week from June 15 to June 21, when the heat wave began.
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The difference between the two figures – the total so far is 2,025 – is therefore considered to be more deaths from one week to the next, from all causes and including all age groups, it said.
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At the Paris-Saclay hospital, patients suffering from heat began to arrive during surgery on June 20, Dr. Nicolas Gonzales, head of the emergency department, told the Associated Press.
He said they were treating those affected by the heat due to heart disease, dehydration, kidney failure and other problems related to the heat, from children to elderly people living alone.
Public Health France said that the number of deaths in private homes has increased week by week, with those figures increasing by 91 percent. Deaths in nursing homes increased by 37 percent and in hospitals by nearly 20 percent.
The Paris region appears to have been hit the hardest, with a nearly 63 percent increase in deaths from one week to the next, it said.
The health organization warned that its figures underestimate the number of deaths, as they are based on incomplete data.
“The death toll will be higher than these initial figures,” he said.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
