Heat wave: death in direct | France 2 | Envoyé Spécial

During August of 2003, there were two successive heat waves in France (6-9 August; 11-13 August) which led to a comparatively higher death rate of 14,802 people. This record, the highest in Europe, precipitated an unprecedented crisis in President Chirac’s government. A third of the heat wave victims died of the heat in their homes. An independent journalist and cameraman, Spike JEAN, followed the Paris funerary service teams from August 17 to August 22, mobilized to recuperate the dead. Hard but strong images which bear witness to the violence of a phenomena both unpredictable and devastating and which will forever remain engraved in the memories of the French.