European countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed.
The vast majority – more than 9,000 – were among people aged 65 and above, according to data published by EuroMOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.
Extreme heat can kill by causing heatstroke, or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable.
“To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s really high,” said Lasse Vestergaard, Chief Physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO.
“It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat,” Vestergaard added.
Scientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change, which is making heatwaves more frequent and intense.
