Deaths in France rose by 30% during the hottest week on record for the June heatwave | France

The number of deaths recorded in France has risen by almost 30 percent this week as a record-breaking heat wave ravaged much of Europe last month, a public health official said, adding that he expected the toll to rise.

Public Health France said on Friday there was an “increase of 29.1%, corresponding to 2,025 deaths compared to the previous week”. It said this number was probably underestimated and “the death toll will rise significantly”.

The new and still incomplete figures double the initial estimates of at least 1,000 deaths given by the authority last Sunday. That previous estimate includes just the three hottest days of extreme heat.

Belgium’s health ministry said the number of overdose deaths was estimated at 1,200 between 18 and 29 June, with 530 deaths among people aged 85 or over. The Dutch government said the heat had led to the deaths of more than 480 people, mostly elderly people.

The updated French figures cover the week of 22 to 28 June, in which France registered its hottest days ever, when the previous and night temperatures were disrupted in cities and towns across the country. Hundreds of records also fell in other parts of Europe.

Public Health France said it had counted 8,973 deaths this week but warned that the number was still half. It said the initial total was 29% more than the 6,948 people who registered for the previous week of June 15-21.

It said the increase was mostly concentrated in people aged 45 and over, with the over 65s the most affected. “While we see a clear increase in those aged 45 to 64, people aged 65 and over have the highest number of deaths,” she said.

Deaths at home recorded the greatest increase, almost doubling in one week, and Paris was the most affected region; the number of deaths recorded in the capital increased by 62% week on week, said Public Health France in its weekly report.

Nicolas Revel, director-general of the public hospital system in Paris, said he expected the death toll from the June heatwave to be lower than in 2003, but “probably” higher than last year’s extreme heat event which killed 5,700 people.

More than two-thirds of Europeans experienced temperatures of 35C-plus during the June event, AFP said, basing its figures on temperature data from the European Drought Observatory and population figures from the Joint Research Centre.

The environmental effects of extreme heat have been felt across Europe. In Italy, the drought has left many waterways “in a critical state”, according to the Po River Basin Authority. Lake Maggiore, at the foot of the Alps, is only 48% full; in some places, dry parts of the Po River have been left exposed. To deal with the drought, the Veneto region declared a state of emergency on Thursday.

The heat also triggered an Ice Loss Day on June 29 on Switzerland’s Rhône Glacier, resulting in excessive melting of decades or centuries-old ice. The resulting water would fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every 6 seconds for two weeks, Matthias Huss, director of Glacier Monitoring Switzerland, told Reuters.

Elsewhere, all-time heat records were broken in Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Czechia and Hungary, as well as June records in the UK and Switzerland, while France’s average temperature measured across the country also hit a record high. These temperatures would not have been possible in June without climate change, World Weather Attribution meteorologists said.