He told a Paris media conference that the death toll was an estimate at this stage, but the final figures "will certainly be around the upper part of this range."

Health ministry official Lucien Abenhaim had told the newspaper Le Monde Thursday the death toll could be as high as 3,000.

"A range that may go as high as 3,000 is plausible, essentially made up of elderly or fragile people whose deaths might have been brought on by the heat," Abenhaim had said.

Mattei said that the situation, now that the heatwave had passed, "is totally under control, but the health alert remains in place."

French authorities on Thursday implemented a national plan setting up temporary morgues and boosting hospital beds and staff to cope with the crisis.

It took action after doctors warned that the bodies of heat-stroke victims -- most of them elderly -- were piling up at alarming rates and that medical staff were being overwhelmed.

The heatwave, which brought temperatures over 40 degrees Celsiusdegrees Fahrenheit) to much of France, started receding on Thursday and Paris hospitals said patient admissions had got back to normal by the weekend.

TERRA.WIRE