‘Please only call 999 for life-threatening emergencies. We are working hard to reach everyone who needs us’
A critical incident has been declared by London Ambulance Service amid sweltering temperatures.
Demand on ambulance services are so high that the critical incident has been declared late on Friday night, June 26 – with the public only urged to call 999 for life-threatening emergencies.
London Ambulance Service said in a statement: “Demand on our services is so high today we have declared a Critical Incident.
“Please only call 999 for life-threatening emergencies. We are working hard to reach everyone who needs us.”
Friday, June 26 was confirmed by the Met Office as the UK’s hottest June day on record, with a provisional temperature of 37.3C recorded in Santon Downham, Suffolk, surpassing the high of 36.7C recorded in Merryfield, Somerset, on Thursday.
These smashed the long-standing record for June heat, which dates back to the summer of 1976, by more than 1C, which is significant given such records were usually broken only by a fraction of a degree in the past.
Analysis by the campaign group Global Witness found that the average temperature at 3pm on Tuesday was almost 33C in London.
Temperatures are now set to drop after the blistering heat experienced this week across the country,
Met Office chief forecaster Andy Page said: “The UK is seeing a gradual shift in conditions over the weekend, with those to the southeast of England retaining the warmth the longest, where an amber extreme heat warning remains in force through much of Saturday, though peaks are more likely to be in the low 30s Celsius.”
Scientists warned that the heatwave would have been virtually impossible 50 years ago, with human-driven climate change fuelling more intense and frequent extreme heat events.
