France recorded more than 5,700 excess deaths during June heatwave | France

France recorded more than 5,700 deaths during a June heatwave, officials said, while parts of southern Europe continued to endure another record-breaking period of extreme temperatures.

The French national health agency said on Wednesday that 5,764 excess deaths were recorded between June 17 and July 2, an excess mortality rate of 36%.

More than half of the “unprecedented” total was recorded between June 25 and 27, with deaths of people aged 75 and over accounting for nearly two-thirds of excess deaths, the agency said.

The report stated that those who lost their lives between June 17 and July 2 died of “all causes” but none were directly related to the heat. France reported slightly fewer excess deaths (5,722) over the entire summer last year.

The announcement comes as firefighters in Spain battle one of the country’s largest ever wildfires, which has burned nearly 32,000 hectares (79,000 acres) in the Guadalajara region north of Madrid, prompting the evacuation of 1,200 people from 34 villages in the sparsely populated area and a quarantine order in 14 other villages.

The fire has begun to stabilize and five village residents have been allowed to return to their homes, officials said Wednesday. During his visit to the region, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that Spain has suffered 22 large forest fires so far this year, which is four times more than in the same period last year.

More than 100,000 hectares of land were burned, the same as the annual average over the past decade, he said, adding that more needed to be done to prevent fires. “We must raise public awareness and not trivialize the climate emergency,” he said.

National weather agency Aemet said the wildfire danger was “very high or extreme” and was expected to increase further in the coming days. He urged people to be extremely careful due to high temperatures of 42-44 degrees and dry wind blowing from the west.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and scientists say human-caused climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires, while also creating conditions for sudden, devastating storms.

The Guadalajara fire occurred less than two weeks after a deadly blaze devastated a small expatriate community in southern Spain, killing 13 people, including several foreigners, in one of the country’s deadliest wildfires on record.

Sara Aagesen, Spain’s ecological transition minister, described the Guadalajara fire as “one of the largest fires in our country’s recent history” and data shows it has spread beyond the 37,000 hectares burned in a fire in northwestern Spain alone last year.

In France, where two firefighters died in their vehicles in the southwestern region of Gironde on Tuesday, authorities urged people to avoid using barbecues in areas experiencing heat waves and said nine out of 10 fires were caused by human activity.

A forest fire in the southeastern Var province destroyed an area of ​​2,500 hectares and 400 people had to flee. “The situation was very difficult, 1,100 firefighters fought all night,” said William Vogl, spokesman for Var firefighters.

In Greece, where temperatures are predicted to rise above 41 degrees, authorities banned working outdoors during the peak hours of the noon sun. 11 people, 3 of whom were seriously ill, were hospitalized after a severe storm in Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, on Tuesday.

In Italy, multiple fires broke out in Sicily on Wednesday, prompting scattered evacuations. The country’s civil protection agency has declared the entire island at highest risk of bushfires, with high winds and temperatures above 40C fueling many fires.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report