Paris ? A blistering heat wave across Europe has caused as many as 3,000 deaths in France alone, the government said Thursday, as overburdened funeral homes and morgues struggled to manage an overflow of incoming bodies.

Funeral parlor employee David Pouly closes the door of an inflatable refrigerated tent, used as a makeshift morgue and already containing 15 bodies, in Longjumeau outside Paris. About 3,000 people have died in France of heat-related causes since abnormally high temperatures swept across the country about two weeks ago, the health ministry reported Thursday, and morgues and funeral directors have reported skyrocketing demand for their services.

Critics raised new questions about the government’s handling of the crisis and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin rushed back to Paris from his Alpine holiday to deal with what the Health Ministry called an epidemic of heat-related deaths.

Abnormally high temperatures have baked France and other parts of Europe this month, fanning forest fires and devastating livestock. Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei, speaking to reporters after an emergency meeting with Raffarin, said “the figure that today reflects a reasonable estimate is between 1,500 and 3,000 dead.”

That was lower than an earlier ministry statement putting the number at about 3,000 since Aug. 7, but was surprisingly high to many. Other countries in Europe that have suffered through the same heat wave have reported far fewer deaths. Spain, for example, has recorded 42.

It was the government’s first official death toll estimate, though hospital officials in Paris said earlier this week that more than 100 people had died in the capital alone. A final, nationwide figure is to be released next week, ministry officials said.

The ministry said in its statement that the deaths were “directly or indirectly” linked to the heat, and that many of the victims were elderly.