Several have died in the past few weeks because of the high temperatures, Aurelie de Cacqueray, the head of the SAMU's office that looks after the destitute in Paris, told AFP on Monday.

Temperatures in the French capital have been edging towards 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Farenheit) for the best part of a week.

"Summer is always a difficult time for the homeless because fewer people worry about them, even though the heat aggravates all their problems," de Cacqueray said.

On Sunday, one man collapsed a short distance from the Catholic shelter in the north of the city where he had wanted to spend the night. His death was the result of heat stroke linked to high alcohol intake.

A week earlier, the body of another homeless man was found in a vehicle in an abandoned worksite west of Paris, the victim of poor health, pneumonia and the heat.

The man, Samir Gherab, had starred in a film last year about France's homeless. He had been on day leave from a psychiatric hospital that had been looking after him for several weeks.

Ambulance statistics show that call-outs to help people in the street have risen markedly since the beginning of the heat wave a week ago but they do not differentiate between homeless people and other types of patients.

The doctor at the SAMU office, Christine Laruelle, said that people living on the street, like some elderly people and others in socially isolated situations, tended to be at risk from severe dehydration when the mercury spiked.

Several drank alcohol or coffee in a vain attempt to quench their thirst and "some wear several layers of clothing out of fear that other will steal them if, and because they aren't aware of the heat as much", she said.

Many of the people who passed through her clinic had severe sunburn caused by sleeping in exposed places and infected blisters on their feet, Laruelle said.

The parks and gardens in Paris offered respite to many of the homeless, especially because of the water taps they usually feature. But the absence during the traditional French vacation period of many of the concerned residents and volunteers who cared for the homeless and who actively sought them out was being felt, she said.

"Those who usually give helping hands, who give a bottle of water to the local street person and who call us when he doesn't look so great, those are the people we're missing the most," Laruelle said.

The SAMU pointed out that nearly a third of the 2,200 beds normally available in Paris to the homeless were closed during the summer break, forcing more out onto the baking sidewalks.

TERRA.WIRE