Scientists estimated Wednesday that rising temperatures from human-caused climate change were responsible for roughly 16,500 deaths in European cities this summer, using modelling to project the toll before official data is released.

The rapidly-produced study is the latest effort by climate and health researchers to quickly link the death toll during heatwaves to global warming — without waiting months or years to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The estimated deaths were not actually recorded in the European cities, but instead were a projection based on methods such as modelling used in previously peer-reviewed studies.

Death tolls during heatwaves are thought to be vastly underestimated because the causes of death recorded in hospitals are normally heart, breathing or other

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