August 19, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 20, 1424

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PARIS, Aug 18: France’s surgeon-general resigned on Monday amid a deepening scandal over the government’s handling of a record-breaking heatwave that the health minister admitted could have caused the deaths of up to 5,000 people.

Lucien Abenheim, the general director for health, told Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei in a letter that he was tendering his resignation “given the present controversies surrounding the handling of the epidemic (of deaths) linked to the heatwave”.

Mr Mattei said it was possible the number of deaths from the two weeks of record-breaking temperatures, which ended late last week, had topped the government’s previous estimate of 3,000.

“The figure of 5,000 was mentioned yesterday. It’s one hypothesis. It’s plausible but it’s just a hypothesis,” he told RTL radio, adding that precise figures would not be known for several weeks. —AFP