The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Reuters has reported that Europe recorded more than 10,650 excess deaths during a record-breaking heatwave at the end of June 2026, with health experts and scientists warning that human-induced climate change significantly intensified the deadly weather event.
According to Reuters, official mortality data compiled by
EuroMOMO, a network supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control and the World Health Organization, showed that more than 9,000 of the
excess deaths occurred among people aged 65 and older, underscoring the
heightened vulnerability of elderly populations during periods of extreme heat.
Health experts said extreme temperatures increase the risk
of heatstroke and can aggravate cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. Lasse
Vestergaard, a senior physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, said the
unusually high level of excess mortality at this time of year could
"hardly be attributed to anything other than extreme heat."
Reuters reported that scientists concluded the intensity of
the Late-June heatwave would have been "virtually impossible" without
human-caused climate change, which has made extreme heat events more frequent
and severe across Europe.
According to the report, France and Belgium recorded the
highest levels of excess mortality during the heatwave, with Belgium
registering its highest heat-related death toll since 2000. A separate study
also estimated that about 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England
and Wales during May and June 2026, with 42 percent of those deaths directly
linked to climate change.
