Temperatures in Japan have hit a record high, with officials issuing a fresh warning to stay safe.
Japan has for days been in the grip of a deadly heatwave, although the numbers reported killed vary widely from 15 to as high as 40.
On Monday, the thermometer peaked at 41.1C (106F) in Kumagaya, near Tokyo, breaking the previous national record of 41C from 2013.
More than a dozen cities have seen temperatures of about 40C.
Japan’s disaster management agency urged people to stay in air-conditioned spaces, drink water and rest to prevent heat exhaustion.
“People in areas where temperatures are as high as 35 degrees or higher should be extremely careful” to avoid heatstroke, a meteorological agency official told news agency AFP.
“And even at lower temperatures, the heat can be dangerous for small children and elderly people, and depending on the environment and activities you are doing,” the official warned. In Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo, people took part in an event known as uchimizu, or “water ceremony” – pouring or sprinkling cold water on to the hot pavements in an attempt to cool them. Already this summer, more than 10,000 people have been taken to hospital as a result of the heat, according to the country’s Kyodo news agency.
On Monday, a number of senior citizens died as a result of the intense heat in prefectures surrounding Tokyo, according to the local authorities. A day earlier, the Tokyo Fire Department dispatched ambulances some 3,125 times within the capital, the largest figure for a day since it began emergency services in 1936, as heatstroke and exhaustion contributed to emergency calls, AFP reports.
