Health. More than 100 people have drowned since June 1, a jump from 2024.

More than 100 people have already died by drowning in France since the beginning of June, a jump of half compared to the same period in 2024, the French public health agency noted on Friday, which sees this as a consequence of the recent heatwave.

"We are making the connection with the heatwave we have just experienced," Aymeric Ung, an epidemiologist for the public health agency, said at a press conference.

Adolescents particularly affected

The public health agency notes that between June ¹ and July 2, 109 people died by drowning. This is 58% more than during the same period last year. The trend is even more pronounced when considering all drownings, including those that were not fatal: at more than 400, they have doubled in one year.

The increase is particularly worrying among minors. Between the beginning of June and the beginning of July, 19 have already died by drowning, compared to fewer than ten the previous year.

These cases mainly concern adolescents (over 13 years old) and, for the most part, took place in rivers or bodies of water. This contrasts sharply with adults, whose deaths are just as common at sea.

A summer under high surveillance

For the public health agency, the cause is clear: the second half of June was marked by a heatwave of a magnitude almost unprecedented for that period, followed by a severe heatwave at the very beginning of July. Almost the entire metropolitan area was affected.

"We know that these high temperatures increase the dangers associated with swimming," insisted Aymeric Ung, for whom "the danger of drowning is very real (...) in unsupervised rivers and bodies of water."

Drownings are therefore indirectly adding to the range of health problems exacerbated by extreme heat, which is becoming increasingly common in the context of global warming. Public Health France will continue to monitor the trend in drownings throughout the summer, a trend that generally increases with the arrival of the holidays.