Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
A teenage boy and an OAP have died amid a record-breaking heatwave hitting Spain with the mercury expected to top 40 degrees Celsius as British tourists flock to the holiday hot spot for the summer season.
The 17-year-old boy, whose name has not been reported, died after jumping into a swimming pool to cool himself down when he suffered heat stroke as he was working in the fields in the town of Castro del Rio, in the province of Cordoba, in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia.
Local media report the teenager had been harvesting crops in a field when he began to feel sick from the heat and jumped into a swimming pool to cool down.
Pictures Credit: CEN & CEN/@AEMET_Esp
He started convulsing and was taken to the Reina Sofia hospital in the city of Cordoba where he was placed in an Intensive Care Unit in a very serious condition.
He underwent surgery to recover normal heart function but he reportedly did not respond to the operation and he died around 1:25 am the following day.
The incident comes as a 93-year-old man fainted in the streets of the city of Valladolid, in the central Spanish province of Castilla y Leon as he was reportedly suffering from heat stroke too.
Paramedics arrived at the scene but could only confirm the man’s death, according to reports.
Temperatures in Andalusia have not sky-rocketed as they have in other parts of the country this week but some areas of Cordoba are expected to reach 40 degrees today (Friday), prompting the Health Department in the region to ask citizens to take precautionary measures.
The heatwave has hit 34 provinces in 13 regions in Spain, and in the regions of Aragon, Catalonia, La Rioja and Navarra there are ‘red alerts’ (extreme risk) sent out by the State Agency of Meteorology as temperatures could rise above 42 degrees.
The latest figures from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics show that more British tourists are visiting Spain this year than last.
The favourite destination for British tourists is the Canary Islands, where 36.2 percent of Brits head, followed by the Community Valencia (31.9 percent), Andalusia (26.5 percent), and the Balearic Islands (20.1 percent).
British tourists spent 1,302 million EUR in April in Spain this year, an increase of eight percent compared to last year.
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