France says summer heat wave killed 1,500 people

A pharmacy thermometer in France shows the high temperature in July.
(Image credit: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)

The brutal heat wave that hit France this summer contributed to the deaths of 1,500 people, the country's health minister said Sunday.

The heat wave spanned 18 days in June and July, and there were over 1,000 more deaths than the yearly average for that time period, Agnes Buzyn said. Half of the people who died were over 75.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.