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Tourists walk past a large digital screen near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on July 11 (local time), which announces the landmark's early closure due to an intense heatwave. The operating company stated that the monument would exceptionally close at 4:00 PM over the weekend as severe heat sweeps through France. / Photo courtesy of AFP, Yonhap News Agency

A record-breaking heatwave that swept through Western Europe in late June resulted in more than 10,000 excess deaths across the continent, Reuters reported on July 13 (local time).

According to the latest data released by EuroMOMO—a mortality monitoring platform supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO)—a total of 10,650 excess deaths were recorded during the week of June 22 to 28, when the heatwave reached its peak. Of these fatalities, more than 9,000 were confirmed to be seniors aged 65 and older.

Medical experts noted that extreme temperatures can trigger heatstroke or severely exacerbate pre-existing cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, leaving elderly populations exceptionally vulnerable to such environmental stressors.

"It is highly unusual to see excess mortality of this scale during this time of the year," said Lasse Vestergaard, a senior medical officer at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) in Denmark, which coordinates the EuroMOMO network. "There is no other health factor than the extreme heatwave that can explain this sudden surge in mortality."

During the period, public health agencies found no other suspicious epidemiological factors, such as COVID-19 spikes, that could account for the surge. In fact, for the eight weeks leading up to the heatwave, the average number of deaths across these European nations had remained well below baseline levels.

The June heatwave shattered all-time high temperature records across France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and neighboring countries, prompting widespread power outages and sudden school closures.

Climate scientists consistently point to human-induced climate change as the driving force behind the unprecedented frequency and intensity of these extreme heat events.

While EuroMOMO does not disclose exact breakdown figures for individual nations, it noted that France and Belgium recorded exceptionally high excess mortality rates during the final week of June.

The Belgian Institute for Health additionally announced that its excess mortality rate during the period marked the highest level recorded since data collection began in 2000.

Meanwhile, a separate joint study conducted by Imperial College London, the UK Met Office, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimated that approximately 2,700 people died from heat-related illnesses in England and Wales alone during the heatwaves spanning May and June.

EuroMOMO added that the current mortality figures may undergo slight upward or downward revisions as lagged data continues to filter in from participating countries.

                                                                                                          Lee Jeong-eun