More than 100 people have already died by drowning in France between early June and early July, a leap in relation to the same period in 2024, noted on Friday July 11, the Public Health France (SPF).
The agency notes that between 1is June and July 2, 109 people died by drowning. “We make the link with the heat wave we have just suffered”said at a press conference Aymeric Bun Ung, an epidemiologist for the public health agency.
It is 58 % more than at the same time of the previous year. The trend is even more marked by taking into account all the drownings, including those who have not been fatal: reaching more than 400, they doubled in one year.
Teenagers on the front line
The increase appears particularly worrying in minors. Between early June and early July, 19 were already dead while drowning, when they were less than ten the previous year. These cases mainly concern adolescents (over 13 years) and, for the most part, took place in rivers or water bodies. The contrast is striking with adults, in whom the dead have just as much place at sea.
For the public health agency, the cause is clear: the second half of June was marked by a heat wave of an almost ever -seen magnitude during this period, extended by a strong heat wave in early July. Almost the whole metropolis was struck. “We know that these high temperatures accentuate the dangers linked to swimming”insisted Mr. Bun Ung, for whom “The danger of drowning is very real (…) in watercourses and not monitored water bodies ”.
Noyades are therefore added, indirectly, to all the health problems accentuated by the hot weather, while these are becoming more and more frequent in a context of global warming. SPF will continue to monitor the evolution of drowning across the country all summer long, while the risk increases during summer school holidays.
