The bodies of dozens of mainly elderly Parisians who remain unclaimed after their deaths in last month's heatwave will be interred in a cemetery south of the French capital on Wednesday, city authorities said.Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe is to attend the morning non-religious ceremony in the suburb of Thiais, following the expiry of the official period during which human cadavers can remain unburied.
France was plunged into deep shame a week ago when it was reported that some 400 victims of the devastating August heatwave in Paris had been living in such isolation that no families came forward to offer them burial.
After the authorities sent out teams of social workers to find relatives, more than 320 of the corpses have been claimed in the last week.
Paris city hall issued a list of the 66 remaining bodies late Monday. The oldest is Georgette Guebey, who was born in December 1905, and the youngest a man believed to be called Philippe Leger, who was only 36.
More than 11,000 French people died as a result of the heatwave, according to the latest official toll, which in Paris was the most severe since record-keeping began in 1873.
A food warehouse-turned morgue in the Paris suburb of Rungis used to store part of the backlog of unclaimed bodies shut down on Monday.
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