By Serge Duchêne with AFP
A baby has died in hospital after being found in an overheated car during a severe heatwave in Marseille, the hospital said on Friday. It is already the fourth such death to occur in France this week, after a case in Val-d'Oise on Thursday and two in Carpentras on Monday.
The civil protection service said it had rushed the 18-month-old infant to the paediatric unit after finding the child suffering from hyperthermia in a vehicle on Tuesday, in the car park of the Timone University Hospital campus, which belongs to Aix-Marseille University.
The baby was taken to the accident and emergency department at Timone hospital in a critical condition. The child ultimately died in hospital. It is not yet known when the baby died, as the death was only announced on Friday 26 June.
Temperatures in the city of Marseille reached 33 °C on Tuesday, while the Bouches-du-Rhône département was on orange alert for a heatwave.
