A woman protects her self from the sun with an umbrella as she walks amid hot weather at Paphos gate at medieval core in central capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, June 14, 2024. A Cyprus health official said a second elderly person has died from heatstroke after a weeklong heatwave that baked the east Mediterranean island nation with reportedly record temperatures for the month of June.
An 84 year-old woman died a day after her admission to a hospital on Friday, said State Health Services Organization spokesman Charalambos Charilaou. He said another three elderly patients were in serious condition.The high temperatures and strong winds also have hampered firefighting efforts, including in a mountainous area southwest of the capital Nicosia, where over 3.2 square kilometers of forest were scorched, threatening a village.
Last week, 49 residents in two communities in the island’s western Paphos district were evacuated to hotels as a wildfire threatened their homes, while aircraft from Greece and Jordan joined in firefighting efforts.