Europeans were being urged to stay cool on Friday as a record-breaking heatwave that has melted roads, jangled nerves and killed 31 people across half the continent looked set to last another week.
In France, medical authorities said 22 people have now died from the heat -- up from nine two days ago. They include a child of 15 months, four laborers and two homeless people.
The updated count brought to 31 the number of people who are believed to have died since the start of the week in western Europe, including two new victims reported in Spain.
PHOTO: AFP
The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said there was a rise of 168 in the number of deaths in the first week of July above the average -- which it said was linked to the heatwave.
"This does not mean that these people were killed by the heat. But if someone has a particular cardiovascular or breathing problem, then heat can be a trigger," said CBS researcher Carl Harmsen.
French forecasters placed the eastern half of the country on "orange" alert -- the second highest level -- warning of more peaks at the weekend. Temperatures were expected to reach 38oC in the Rhone valley.
The state-run Meteo-France weather center advised the public to keep windows and shutters closed during the day and allow air indoors only at night. People should shower frequently, drink 1.5 liters of water a day and spend three hours a day in an air-conditioned environment like a cinema, it said.
With concern growing that there could be a repeat of the deadly 2003 heatwave that killed 15,000 in France and more than twice as many across Europe, a government committee was appointed to meet every Thursday and hear the latest from the health and social services.
Temperatures in Britain came off the boil on Friday but were still hot, with London enjoying a steamy 35oC.
Meanwhile in the US, National Guard troops stepped up their search for people in hot homes without power to run air conditioning as heavy rains and tree-toppling winds added to the misery of the worst power outage in the city's history.
"We have 55 percent of the residents without power. Our biggest fear is that the number will go up," said Jeff Rainford, spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay.
A heat wave that has baked much of the country this week has been blamed for at least 29 deaths, three of them in the central state of Missouri, where St Louis is located.
The death toll in Oklahoma alone rose to seven. The state medical examiner's office said the heat caused the deaths of four elderly people on Thursday, including one in Oklahoma City, where the high that day was 42oC.
Oklahoma City was so hot that a portion of a major highway, Interstate 44, buckled, forcing the temporary closure of two lanes.
In St Louis, the weather has flip-flopped between sweltering heat and violent storms. As many as 500,000 customers in the area lost electric power on Wednesday, making Thursday's heat that much more unbearable.
Progress in restoring power had been made, but the local utility said the number of customers without power rose again as a new wave of storms passed through. Late on Friday, about 480,000 homes and businesses braced for a summer weekend without electricity.
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