64 die in France

Overnight storms in France brought welcome relief yesterday from a heatwave that killed 64 people and which provided the first real test of new measures aimed at preventing the mass deaths of three summers ago.

Temperatures however remained high in other European countries.

Thunder, lightning and heavy showers swept across France from west to east, knocking down sweltering temperatures and bringing an end to a over a week of unusually hot weather.

This year's heatwave was neither as hot nor as deadly as 2003's, in which 15,000 people died but it still put France's health system to the test.

The Institute of Health Surveillance said hospitals coped well with the influx of mainly elderly people in need of treatment for heat-related ailments. "There was no malfunction, there was no saturation of the system," Gilles Bruecker, director of the institute told a news conference, adding that there was no mass transfer of old people from retirement homes to hospitals as there had been in 2003.

After the heatwave of 2003, France boosted measures to protect vulnerable groups, particularly the elderly, during unusually hot weather. This summer it issued advertisements advising the public to drink water and stay in cool places.

"We were not ready in 2003. That is obvious," Dr Bruecker said. Of the 64 deaths caused directly or indirectly by this heatwave, 40 were people over 75 years of age, although Dr Bruecker said it was not always easy to say whether the unusual heat was responsible for their deaths.

Maximum temperatures yesterday fell well below 30°C in many places where they had been in the low to mid-30s for a week.

Forecasters said temperatures should remain closer to normal levels over the coming days.