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A blistering heat wave across Europe has caused as many as 3,000 deaths in France alone, the government said Thursday, as overburdened funeral homes and morgues struggled to manage an overflow of incoming bodies.

A woman who wished to remain unidentified drinks after she was brought by firefighters to the Saint Antoine hospital in Paris, Monday, Aug. 11, 2003. About 3,000 people have died in France of heat-related causes since abnormally high temperatures swept the country aboout two weeks ago, the French health ministry estimated, Aug. 14, 2003.  [AP]

Critics raised new questions about the government's handling of the crisis and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin rushed back to Paris from his Alpine holiday to deal with what the Health Ministry called an epidemic of heat-related deaths.

Abnormally high temperatures have baked France and other parts of Europe this month, fanning forest fires and devastating livestock. Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting with Raffarin, said "the figure that today reflects a reasonable estimate is between 1,500 and 3,000 dead."

That was lower than an earlier ministry statement putting the number at about 3,000 since Aug. 7, but was surprisingly high to many. Other countries in Europe that have suffered through the same heat wave have reported far fewer deaths. Spain, for example, has recorded 42.

It was the government's first official death toll estimate, though hospital officials in Paris said earlier this week that more than 100 people had died in the capital alone. A final, nationwide figure is to be released next week, ministry officials said.

The ministry said in its statement that the deaths were "directly or indirectly" linked to the heat, and that many of the victims were elderly. The conclusions were drawn from studying deaths in 23 Paris regional hospitals from July 25-Aug. 12 and from information provided by General Funeral Services. Doctors have cited fatal cases of heat stroke and dehydration among the causes.

"It's a nationwide catastrophe the likes of which we've never seen," Patrick Pelloux, head of the association for French emergency hospital physicians, told Europe-1 radio Thursday. He has repeatedly criticized the government for reacting too slowly.

Mattei insisted the government responded when the first cases of heat-related death appeared, telling France-Inter radio: "We didn't just remain inactive."

Morgues and funeral homes were overrun with bodies. Some hospitals requisitioned kitchen refrigerators to hold the dead, while others put up tents to keep corpses before burial, Pelloux said.

A morgue in Longjumeau, a suburb south of Paris, rented an air-conditioned tent to house twice as many corpses.

General Funeral Services, France's largest undertaker, said it handled some 3,230 deaths from Aug. 6-12, compared to 2,300 on an average week — a 37 percent jump.

Family members of victims lashed out at the government.

"It's scandalous. The government has done nothing," said Martine Flou, whose 70-year-old mother's body had to be brought to a morgue in Paris from their home 50 miles away because there was no space there.

Some officials said one problem is that the country all but shuts down in August, when many French go on vacation. Hospital services in cities are curtailed and many families leave their elderly relatives at home.

A law limiting France's work week to 35 hours left medical centers and retirement homes doubly short-staffed.

Germany and Italy haven't issued figures on heat-related deaths, saying such figures are difficult to come by because heat may be just one factor contributing to a person's death.

The French Health Ministry said its estimate was partly drawn from tracking deaths in 23 Paris regional hospitals from July 25-Aug. 12 and from information provided by the country's largest undertaker.

According to 2002 figures, Paris regional hospitals surveyed could have expected some 39 deaths a day, the ministry said. But on Aug. 12 this year, they recorded nearly 180.

If the preliminary French figures hold up, the heat-related death toll would be among the highest in recent years, officials at the World Health Organization in Geneva said.

About 2,600 heat-related deaths were recorded in India five years ago, and roughly 500 people died from heat-related causes in 1995 in Chicago, according to WHO experts.

"I was surprised that the number (in France) was so large," said WHO climate change expert Carlos Corvalan, adding that the figure "any way you cut it — is too many deaths from a heat wave."

On Wednesday, days after the first complaints about a slow response emerged, the French prime minister ordered Paris hospitals to prepare a large number of beds to treat victims and called back health care workers from their vacations.

This year's heat wave is France's worst ever on record, said Patrick Galois, a forecaster for national weather service Meteo France. Meteo France said the worst of the heat wave was probably over, with no part of the country reporting temperatures above 95 on Thursday.

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