Lucien Abenhaim, who stepped down as France's surgeon-general on August 18, told BBC radio that he was not responsible for the government's tardiness in realizing the extent of the disaster.

"I didn't accept responsibility for what happened. I resigned because the minister of health (Jean-Francois Mattei) was talking to the radios and saying that he hadn't been informed or alerted... but he had been alerted," he said.

"I resigned to be able to express myself freely and explain what has happened calmly and scientifically," Abenhaim added. "We have no responsibility whatsoever in our department for what happened here."

The first two weeks of August saw some of the hottest weather ever recorded across France and much of the rest of Europe, with temperatures soaring in many areas to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Estimates of the number of people who died in France, many of them elderly folk living alone, range from 3,000 to as many as 10,000, but the government only reacted to the problem towards the end of the second week of searing heat.

The deaths have caused a massive scandal in France, which prides itself on the quality of its health service.

More than a week after the end of the heatwave, hundreds of bodies remain unclaimed in morgues, notably in the Paris region.

TERRA.WIRE