- Reuters) -- French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin
has defended his government's handling of a killer heatwave amid reports
that the final death toll could hit 5000, far higher than the 3000 victims
registered so far.
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- In an interview with the weekly newspaper Le Journal
du Dimanche published today, the conservative prime minister said he was
"appalled" by calls by opposition Socialists and Greens for the
resignation of his health minister, Jean-Francois Mattei.
-
- "All of this is ridiculous. Politics is not a permanent
settlement of scores. Faced with such human tragedies, the time is for
solidarity, not for sterile polemic," he said.
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- The newspaper quoted unnamed sources at the Health Ministry
as saying the death toll since July 25, previously estimated at 3000, could
rise to 5000 when the government unveils final figures next week.
-
- Mattei said after visiting emergency health workers today
that he was not aware of these numbers and the death toll would probably
be at the high end of the government's forecast range of 1600-3000.
-
- Victims were mainly elderly people with heat-related
conditions, such as hyperthermia and dehydration. Many were found at home
alone as the traditional August holiday exodus leaves city centres deserted.
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- Raffarin cut short his vacation for an emergency meeting
last Thursday to tackle the crisis after temperatures topped 40 degrees
Celsius in parts of the country.
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- The government recalled medical staff from holidays under
an emergency plan designed to deal with terrorist attacks, natural disasters
or epidemics. Though the weather has cooled, hospitals remain on alert
amid fears of a new spike in temperatures.
-
- As morgues and funeral parlours struggled to cope with
an overflow of victims, health authorities took over a disused storeroom
at a farmers' market on the outskirts of Paris where several hundred bodies
lay awaiting burial.
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- "Is this the result of a war? An earthquake? No,
the consequence of the heatwave of the summer of 2003," Le Journal
du Dimanche said in an editorial.
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- Copyright © 2003. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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- http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/18/1061059751018.html
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