About 300 Corpses Unclaimed in Paris after Heatwave

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, August 26, 2003

About 300 Corpses Unclaimed in Paris after Heatwave

About 300 bodies remained unclaimed till Monday in Paris after the two-week devastating heatwave, said France's state secretary for the elderly Hubert Falco.

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About 300 bodies remained unclaimed till Monday in Paris after the two-week devastating heatwave, said France's state secretary for the elderly Hubert Falco.

"There are 300 families who have not realized that they have a grandma or a mother that has passed away," Falco said on the private radio station FMC, and expressed his shock at the "slackening ties" in the French society.

"Is it normal that there are still 300 people who have not beenburied in Paris?" he asked. "It is a problem of collective responsibility and not only a problem of the government."

Falco deplored that the French failed to take conscience of theproblems caused by an aging population until they were hit by a national catastrophe.

The heatwave mounting to over 40 degrees Celsius in early August has caused a great number of deaths in France. Decent and proper funerals for the dead have become a heavy burden on both the government and the victims' families, especially in the populous city of Paris.

Some of the bodies were stocked in makeshift morgues due to thelack of regular ones in the Paris region, police said.

About 100 cadavers were put in refrigerated trucks chartered bythe Paris municipality and some were kept in Rungis, a large food wholesale market on the outskirts of the city.

City officials have set up a crisis center in order to get in touch with relatives of the unclaimed victims of the scorching heatwave.

At least 5,000 people in France, 3,000 in Paris alone, have been killed in the heatwave, according to preliminary official statistics released last week.

However, French undertakers said the toll could hit 10,000. Thegovernment said more reliable figures will be announced in coming days.

The majority of the victims were old people who lived alone andsome of them lived in such an "isolated" way that it is hardly possible to identify their relatives, authorities said.

Under French law, the dead must be buried within six days following the death. The limit was extended to 10 days because many of the families of the heat victims were on holiday.

The French government has been under fire for weeks, accused ofinadequately handling the heatwave health crisis.

On Thursday, French President Jacques Chirac called for more attention and care to the elderly, the handicapped and those who live alone, who are more vulnerable to extreme weather conditions.

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