Heatstroke kills 30 in Thailand

Thailand issued fresh warnings about scorching hot weather yesterday as the government said heatstroke has already killed at least 30 people this year.

City authorities in Bangkok here gave an extreme heat warning as the heat index was expected to rise above 52°C.

Temperatures in the concrete sprawl of the Thai capital hit 40.1°C on Wednesday and similar levels were forecast for yesterday.

A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted parts of South and Southeast Asia this week, prompting schools across the Philippines to suspend classes and worshippers in Bangladesh to pray for rain.

The heat index — a measure of what the temperature feels like — was at an “extremely dangerous” level in Bangkok, the city’s Environment Department warned.

Authorities in Udon Thani province, in the kingdom’s rural northeast, also warned of blazing temperatures yesterday.

The Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 30 people had died from heatstroke between Jan 1 and April 17, compared with 37 in the whole of 2023.

Direk Khampaen, deputy director-general of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, said officials were urging elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions to stay indoors and drink water regularly.

April is typically the hottest time of the year in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern.

Last year saw record levels of heat stress across the globe, with the United Nations weather and climate agency saying Asia was warming at a particularly rapid pace.