France is seeing "a higher than normal number of deaths" due to the heatwave baking the country, Health Minister Stephanie Rist said Saturday.
"The extreme heat of recent days has a delayed impact, particularly on vulnerable people but also on some younger ones, who end up in the emergency room five to 10 days after the heatwave," Rist told La Tribune newspaper.
"We're seeing indicators that mortality will very likely be higher than at the same time last year."
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French authorities said on Thursday that hospitals in and around the capital Paris were reaching "saturation point".
