BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - European countries reported more than 10,000 excess deaths during
the record-breaking heatwave that engulfed the west of the continent in late June, official data showed.
The vast majority — more than 9,000 — were among people aged 65 and above, according to data published by EuroMOMO, a network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.
"To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It’s really high," Lasse Vestergaard, Chief Physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, told Reuters.
"It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat," Vestergaard added.
Scientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, which is making heatwaves more frequent and intense.
The data, pooled from national mortality statistics in 27 European countries, included excess deaths from all causes, not just heat-related ones, during the week of June 22 to 28, when the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, Britain and other countries.
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