Paris, Sept 11: French Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei admitted today that the government had neither anticipated nor responded quickly to the crisis stemming from last month's deadly heat wave. "There was neither a true alert in the sense of an alarm being given nor was there any advance preparation," Mattei told a parliamentary committee looking into what happened during the heat wave, which killed more than 11,400 people.

Referring to recommendations made by the office of surgeon general Lucien Abenhaim -- who has since resigned -- on how to beat the heat, Mattei said they "hardly attracted any attention", conceding they were "quite far from the idea we have of a health alert." The minister also told parliamentary deputies that the death toll for the first two weeks of august -- when temperatures across France soared repeatedly to an unusual 40 degrees celsius (104 fahrenheit) -- could be slightly higher.

Mattei said about 12,000 more deaths than normal had been recorded from August 1 to 15, slightly above the figure of 11,435 given by the government late last month.

Bureau Report