Extreme heat has killed 1,300 people in Europe since June 21: WHO chief

Since June 21, there have been more than 1,300 deaths caused by extreme heat in Europe. This was announced by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Ghebreyesus, on his social networks.

Ghebreyesus called these deaths related to high temperatures. He does not specify who exactly is included in the death toll - for example, elderly people or children.

“Europe is the fastest warming continent on Earth, with temperatures rising twice as fast as the global average. Right now, 150 million people are living in extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are closed, and power grids are strained. <...>

Heat stress is often called the 'silent killer' - and European homes, workplaces and schools were not built for such temperatures,” he writes.

The head of WHO also noted that heat waves, which were previously recorded “once in a generation,” are now recorded almost every year due to climate change.

Earlier, in France alone, the country's Ministry of Health reported that since Wednesday the country had recorded about 1,000 more deaths than expected, the BBC notes . Many of the outlier cases occurred in people over 65 years of age.

Historical temperature records were broken in several European countries last week. For example, in Germany, the hottest day on record was recorded for three days: in the eastern part of the country the temperature reached 41.7°C.

Last year, due to abnormal heat, 2.3 thousand people died in twelve major European cities between June 23 and July 2, The Guardian newspaper wrote . Experts then attributed 1,500 of these deaths to the effects of climate change.