Britain counts cost as heatwave kills 13

UK, SPAIN: At least 13 people have died in Britain while swimming during a spell of record-breaking hot weather that sparked wildfires, damaged train tracks and triggered warnings that efforts to tackle climate change needed to be stepped up.

The London Fire Brigade endured its busiest day since World War Two on Tuesday when temperatures topped 40C (104 Fahrenheit) for the first time, igniting fires that destroyed dozens of properties in the capital and torched tinderbox-dry grassland at the sides of railway tracks and roads.

Thirteen people lost their lives after “getting into difficulty in rivers, reservoirs and lakes while swimming in recent days — seven of them teenage boys,” British Minister Kit Malthouse told Parliament on Wednesday.

At least 41 properties were destroyed in London and more than a dozen elsewhere in Britain, Malthouse said.

Many trains heading from London to northern England were delayed or cancelled on Wednesday after the heat from fires buckled heavy train tracks, while signalling equipment and overhead lines were also damaged.

Meanwhile, Spain’s Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday that 679 people had lost their lives in the first eight days (July 10-17) of the second heatwave that hit the country this summer.

The Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) said that 169 deaths occurred on July 17 alone, according to the news agency, Xinhua.

The second heatwave of the summer ended with slightly lower temperatures on Tuesday, but this promises to be a brief respite, with temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees Celsius again in much of the country before the weekend.

The first heatwave of 2022 in Spain lasted from June 11 to June 17 and caused 829 deaths, the institute said. Accordingly, a total of 1,508 people have died in the country this summer due to the excessive heat, Xinhua reported. – JAPAN TODAY, THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS