KILLER HEAT WAVE SWEEPING JAPAN

[tropicana]

Killer heat wave sweeping Japan

TOKYO -- A heat wave sweeping much of Japan has killed seven people, most of them elderly, and left at least 12 others hospitalized in serious condition, officials and news reports said Friday. Temperatures have hit close to 35 C (95F) in some Japanese cities this week. In central Tokyo, it hit a record 35.1 C on Thursday, although the temperature in the capital slightly dropped to 34.5 C (94F) Friday.

A 67-year-old farmer was found lying in his paddy field by his wife yesterday in the town of Edosaki, about 80 km northeast of Tokyo, police said. The farmer was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead of heatstroke.

Heatstroke also claimed the lives of a 74-year-old woman working on a farm in Tomioka, north of Tokyo, and a man in his 50s, who had collapsed on a street in the western metropolis of Okasa Friday.

On Thursday, three women, all in their 70s, died after developing apparent symptoms of heatstroke, two near Tokyo and another in Mie, western Japan, police officials said.

They said a carpenter in his 20s died in Saitama, near Tokyo, while working outside in the heat.
-justin-

[Wnghs2007]

Dang sounds bad. Those peoples families are in my prayers.