The biggest French chain of funeral parlors said on Wednesday it has counted 2,600 more deaths this month than in the same period of August last year, raising the prospect that thousands more lives were lost in France's heat wave than officials estimate.
But Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, whose government has come under fire for its handling of the crisis, warned about giving too much credence to early death toll estimates.
France has been in the midst of a guessing game about how many died when temperatures soared early this month. The government has said that as many as 5,000 people died, though an official count was not expected for weeks.
The death figures reported by funeral home chain OGF on Wednesday suggested that even that high-end estimate -- the last of several by the government -- was too low.
Elisabeth Lichter, an OGF spokeswoman, said the chain had counted 2,604 more deaths in its funeral parlors since Aug. 1 than in the same period last year. Because OGF holds about 25 percent of the market, it multiplied that figure by four to estimate that there were 10,416 more deaths in the period since a year ago.
Shortly after OGF issued its projection, the prime minister issued a statement calling for "prudence" about such estimates, and said precise government figures would be compiled.
"Out of respect for those French people personally touched by this painful crisis, it's necessary to have a scientific study that will establish these reliable figures," Raffarin said.
"Everyone needs the truth," he added.
The government has said most of the victims were elderly people left alone at home. Doctors say heat stroke and dehydration were often the cause of death.
Raffarin also said he had instructed Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei to assemble a panel of experts to estimate the exact number of heat-related deaths and issue a report within a month.
In a statement, OGF predicted that the death toll for the full month of August could be 13,632 more than a year ago.
The government has cited General Funeral Services, a subsidiary of OGF, as one of the sources of information it used to come up with its estimate on the death toll.
The center-right government has come under fire from doctors' groups and rival politicians for its handling of the crisis.
President Jacques Chirac, back from a three-week holiday in Canada, also came under criticism from opponents on Wednesday for remaining silent during the heat wave.
Chirac was to end his silence yesterday with comments on the "exceptional events of the summer and the actions of the government" during the record hot spell, his office said in a statement.
The president was to respond to the issue after a Cabinet meeting, the statement said. He has called for a "very exhaustive" look at the consequences of the heat wave and has instructed several government ministers to report on their agencies' actions, it said.
Earlier Wednesday, Claude Bartolone, a former Socialist urban affairs minister, criticized Chirac for not speaking up sooner about the crisis.
"His silence is a mistake," Bartolone was quoted as saying in Le Parisien newspaper, referring to Chirac.
Last week, as the death toll mounted rapidly, Chirac's office issued a statement saying the president was closely monitoring the situation from Quebec. He has said nothing else in public about the heat wave since then.
French authorities first put the death toll in single digits, then raised it to 50. After a doctors' group faulted that figure as too low, the health ministry estimated last Thursday that 1,600 to 3,000 people died from heat-related causes starting on Aug. 7.
Mattei then said on Monday that it was "plausible" that up to 5,000 people may have died. But he said the figure was a "hypothesis" and said a final toll was not expected for several weeks.
Temperatures have cooled considerably across France since the first two weeks of August, where parts of the country suffered under heat of more than 40?C.
The heat wave caused morgues and funeral homes to overflow with bodies last week, and hospital hallways were jammed with patients on stretchers because there were not enough beds.
French meteorologists say the hot spell was the longest and hottest on record, and many other parts of Europe also roasted. The heat also fanned forest fires and devastated livestock.
Meanwhile, an Italian public-advocacy group called on Wednesday for a government inquiry into heat-related deaths in Italy, saying the number could be in the thousands.
The Italian Health Ministry has refused to release any official figures, saying it was almost impossible to determine whether deaths -- particularly those of the elderly or gravely ill -- were directly linked to high temperatures.
The Italian daily La Republica has reported that heat-related deaths numbered at least 2,000. Many other Italian papers have published similar estimates.
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