Bodies unclaimed in France's heat
From CNN Correspondent Chris Burns
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A funeral home worker builds a coffin as morgues overflow with bodies from the heat wave.
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PARIS, France (CNN) -- French officials said Monday that the remains of several hundred victims of the recent heat wave have yet to be claimed by their families.
Between 300 and 400 bodies were being stored in morgues and in nine refrigerated trucks around the city of Paris, city officials said.
Paris officials said a telephone campaign was launched Monday in an attempt to find the families of the dead. Authorities said if the bodies are not claimed soon, they will be buried.
The "vague de chaleur," or heat wave, that swept France for more than two weeks is estimated to have killed as many as 10,000 people across the country. Many of them were elderly and unable to cope with day after day of record high temperatures.
