Human-made global warming ‘caused two in three heat deaths in Europe this summer’

Climate breakdown made 854 big cities 2.2C hotter on average, the researchers said. Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Human-made global heating caused two in every three heat deaths in Europe during this year’s scorching summer, an early analysis of mortality in 854 big cities has found.

Epidemiologists and climate scientists attributed 16,500 out of 24,400 heat deaths from June to August to the extra hot weather brought on by greenhouse gases.