France Mourns Paris Heat Wave Victims

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 04, 2003

France Mourns Paris Heat Wave Victims

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There were no eulogies. No spoken prayers. No weeping relatives. An official recited the victims' names, and 57 caskets were lowered into side-by-side plots as President Jacques Chirac stood by silently.

Chirac paid tribute at the simple ceremony Wednesday for Parisians whose bodies were never claimed after they died in a brutal heat wave that killed an estimated 11,435 people in August. Despite the state honor, they were buried in a part of the suburban cemetery usually reserved for the destitute or homeless.

Most of those who died in the heat wave were elderly, and many lived in Paris, where temperatures were the highest since officials started keeping records in 1873. In early August, temperatures sometimes reached as high as 104 degrees.

At one point, several hundred bodies lay unclaimed in Paris morgues. Officials tracked down the families of most victims. By Wednesday, nearly three weeks after the heat subsided, 57 bodies still had not been claimed.

Many victims died alone in overheated city apartments while their families were away on vacation. Now, France is trying to answer painful questions about why so many of its most vulnerable citizens were abandoned.

Source: Agencies

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