Heatwave: Death toll in Spain rises to nine

A 66-year-old man who died on Sunday in the southwestern region of Extremadura near Portugal was found to have died of heat stroke, a spokesman for the regional health department told AFP.

A 75-year-old woman who died two days later also succumbed to heat stroke, he added.

This brings to nine the total of people to have died as a direct consequence of the heatwave.

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Children cool down in a Madrid fountain. Photo: AFP

A 40-year-old German man who was on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage also died from heat stroke in Extremadura, as did an 81-year-old man.   

Parts of the region registered temperatures of 46C (111 degrees Fahrenheit) at the weekend.

Over in the northeast in Catalonia, three homeless men have died.   Two other men - a roadworker in his 40s and a 78-year-old pensioner tending to his vegetable garden - also passed away from heatstroke last week.

Temepratures have begun to cool across Spain as the state meteorological agency, (AEMET) said that the worst of the heatwave had passed. Only Cordoba and Seville remained on amber alert for high temperatures. While storm warnings were in place in parts of the Pyrenean region in Aragon and Catalonia.

Most of Spain was on red alert on Tuesday for severe risk of forest fires. 

A fire raged out of control on the outskirts of the town of Llutxent, in Valencia, where authorities evacuated 2,500 residents as they battled to contain the blaze. 

READ ALSO: How to avoid heatstroke when Spain starts to sizzle