Spain's death toll from a particularly virulent heatwave rose to nine in just one week, authorities said today, as the country suffers sky-high temperatures.
A 66-year-old man who died on Thursday in the southwestern region of Extremadura near Portugal was found to have died of heat stroke, a spokesman for the regional health department told AFP.
A 75-year-old woman who died two days later also succumbed to heat stroke, he added.
This brings to nine the number of people to have died as a direct consequence of the heatwave.
A 40-year-old German man who was on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage also died from heat stroke in Extremadura, as did an 81-year-old man.
Parts of the region registered temperatures of up to 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) at the weekend.
Over in the northeast in Catalonia, three homeless men have died. Two other men -- a road worker in his 40s and a 78-year-old pensioner tending to his vegetable garden -- also passed away from heatstroke last week.