Europe recorded 10,000 excess deaths during late-June heatwave

BRUSSELS - 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 Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.

Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke, 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,” Lasse Vestergaard, Chief Physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters.

“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.

The data, pooled from national mortality statistics in 27 European countries, included excess deaths from all causes, not just heat-related ones, during the week of June 22 to 28, when the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, Britain and other countries.

But scientists said there were no other known major factors, such as COVID-19 outbreaks, that would have contributed to the spike to 10,650 excess deaths in that week. 

The same European countries’ combined mortality over the previous eight weeks was, on average, around 500 deaths per week below typical levels. The EuroMOMO data could be revised in future weeks as more data comes in.

The extreme heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature records in France, Spain and the UK.

EuroMOMO does not publish excess deaths per individual country, but it noted that France and Belgium were the only two countries in Europe to log “very high excess” mortality in the last week of June.

Belgium’s excess mortality was the highest during any heatwave in records going back to 2000, according to the country’s public health institute Sciensano.

A separate scientific study, published on Monday, estimated 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales during the May and June heatwaves.

Of those deaths, 42% were caused by the extra heat that global warming contributed to the heatwaves, according to the findings by Imperial College London, the UK Met Office and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Other international news

▪ The death toll from the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 has risen to 4,490, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said on Sunday on his Telegram account.

The official count of injured remained unchanged at 16,740, while 6,462 people have been rescued.

The number of people left homeless stands at 17,907, according to the figures.

▪ A multi-vehicle accident in Mexico caused by a tractor-trailer left nine people dead and some 10 injured, including four U.S. citizens, on a highway in the state of Jalisco, Civil Protection reported on Sunday.

Among the dead are two minors, while the injured include two members of the National Guard who are in serious condition and were transferred to the Magdalena Hospital in Guadalajara, the agency report indicated.

Videos on social media from local media showed several vehicles burned on a highway connecting the cities of Guadalajara and Tepic.

“Four patients in minor condition, all U.S. citizens, were transferred to the Arboledas Hospital in Guadalajara by a private ambulance from the highway,” Jalisco Civil Protection stated.

▪ Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential monsoon rain have killed at least 44 people in southeastern Bangladesh and left over a million stranded as authorities raced on Saturday to deliver aid to devastated communities.

The disaster management ministry said on Saturday that flooding across seven districts - Chattogram, Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Moulvibazar and Habiganj - has disrupted daily life, isolated thousands of families, and stranded 267,918 households.

Power outages, damaged roads and broken communication links have slowed rescue and relief efforts. Many residents have been unable to cook for days as flood waters submerged their homes, while others are struggling after thick layers of mud covered kitchens and living spaces.

Army and navy personnel are ferrying food, drinking water, medicines and other essential supplies by boat to isolated communities, as authorities step up relief efforts.

The heavy rain also triggered landslides in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar earlier this week, killing 16 refugees, including women and children. More than one million Rohingya refugees live in the camps, where makeshift shelters on steep, deforested hillsides are especially vulnerable during the monsoon season.

Bangladesh is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, with seasonal monsoon rains regularly causing floods, river erosion and landslides. Scientists say climate change is making extreme rainfall more frequent and intense, increasing the scale and severity of such disasters. 

▪ An explosive fire at a popular pub in Thailand’s capital of Bangkok has killed 27 people, with another 22 injured in critical condition, officials said on Monday, in one of the deadliest such incidents in the tourism hub in recent years.

“We have recovered 27 bodies; others are being sent to the hospital,” said Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the site of the fire that broke out at 11:57 p.m. (0457 GMT) on Sunday.

Based on survivor accounts, he said the pub in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district rapidly filled with smoke after a fire broke out, forcing many to run to the back of the venue near the bathrooms, but there were no fire escapes.

Another 63 people injured in the incident have been hospitalized, said Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.

Of those injured and hospitalized, 22 are in critical condition, Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters.

Firefighter Chakrit Khongkom said he arrived on the first fire truck to see the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao pub alight and many patrons stranded inside, several of them trying to escape from the back of the venue. The few people coming through the front of the venue were burnt.

Chadchart said the pub had procured proper permits and had fire exits, but the fire spread rapidly and smoke filled the room, potentially making it hard for patrons to escape. 

▪ Syria’s new parliament convened for the first time on Sunday, 19 months after rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad, a milestone in the country’s political transition despite the chamber’s current limited powers.

Sharaa, in a speech at parliament in Damascus, told lawmakers to “make this council a model of responsibility and competence” and described it as “a platform for truth and justice”.

“Syria is writing a glorious history that reflects its heroism, and we face the responsibility of building both the nation and the individual,” he said. 

The parliament has been seen as a test of Sharaa’s pledge to build an inclusive new order in Syria, which was run as a police state by the Assad family for decades, with a legislative chamber that was seen as a rubber stamp.

Under the country’s interim governing arrangements, two-thirds of the members of the 210-seat chamber were chosen last year by regional electoral colleges, while Sharaa named the remaining third on July 1.

Officials have said this system was necessary because years of war had left millions displaced and made it impossible to rely on accurate population records or voter rolls.

Critics say it gave the executive branch extensive control over the selection process. Sharaa has said he supports holding general elections once infrastructure and documentation allow. 

A temporary constitutional declaration introduced in 2025 granted parliament limited authorities, and there is no requirement for the government to win a parliamentary vote of confidence.

The Assembly can propose and approve laws. It has a 30-month term that is renewable, and it assumes legislative authority until a permanent constitution is adopted and elections are organized.

Abdel Halim al-Awak, a member of the committee that drafted the constitutional declaration, was elected speaker with 99 votes. 

Sharaa has said the parliament will be tasked with forming a committee to draft a new constitution.

The chamber has 21 female lawmakers - 15 of whom were among those nominated by Sharaa, who severed ties with al Qaeda in 2016.

Authorities have not issued a breakdown of how many lawmakers hail from ethnic and religious minorities.

Unofficial tallies have shown that 10 of the seats chosen last year went to members of religious and ethnic minorities, including Kurds, Christians and Alawites - the sect to which Assad belongs.

Four of the seats are vacant because one lawmaker died, while three others reserved for the predominantly Druze province of Sweida have yet to be filled.

▪ Typhoon Bavi, the most powerful storm to strike mainland China this year, brought heavy rain to the eastern coast on Sunday and lashed densely populated cities with violent winds, testing the country’s ability to cope with extreme weather.

Bavi had weakened by Sunday morning to a tropical storm as it pushed inland, but forecasters warned that the France-sized storm system could unleash prolonged and widespread rain across eastern and northern China in the coming days.

Over 2.8 million people have been evacuated, according to a Reuters tally of figures reported by state media.

Of those, more than 2.2 million were in Zhejiang, an economic and technological powerhouse in the world’s second-largest economy. There have been no official reports of deaths or injuries.

Bavi struck Zhejiang’s coastal city of Yuhuan at around 11:20 p.m. (1520 GMT) on Saturday before making a second landfall in Yueqing, part of the city of Wenzhou, at around midnight.

Bavi passed northern Taiwan on Saturday, bringing strong winds and driving rain across much of the island. The storm dumped nearly 31 inches of rain in one area in the northern county of Miaoli.

Taiwan’s fire department said on Sunday that 134 people had been injured, mainly due to falling off motorbikes, slipping or being struck by objects. It reported no deaths. The transport ministry said 137 international flights had been canceled on Sunday, along with 62 domestic trips.

By Sunday afternoon, Bavi had moved into eastern Anhui province and was forecast to turn northeast before entering the northern Yellow Sea on Tuesday, China’s National Meteorological Center said. 

The storm is expected to dump heavy to torrential rain across the provinces of Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui from Monday, exacerbating flood risks in areas that have already been soaked by earlier downpours.

Scientists have warned China could face more extreme weather this year with the expected emergence of the El Niño weather pattern, which can drive up temperatures and shift typhoon tracks westward toward the country’s coast.

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.