At least four people have died crossing the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, amid the searing heatwave gripping the south-west.
Temperatures in El Paso peaked at 106F (41C) on Thursday, and some 34 million people – from the southern tip of Texas across Arizona and up into California and Nevada – were under heat alerts.
The US border patrol in El Paso said it had identified four people who died last weekend from “heatstroke and dehydration”. At least two others who are presumed to be migrants died this week, US Customs and Border Protection told the Guardian – though the individuals’ identities and causes of death have yet to be confirmed by the local coroner’s office.
The extreme heat across the south-west has come earlier than usual this year and experts have warned this could be a record-setting season. Last year, amid unprecedented heatwaves across the region, the CBP El Paso sector recorded 686 deaths and disappearances – which was the highest-ever toll the agency had recorded. “As temperatures soar and summer approaches, the treacherous conditions of the desert are proving increasingly dangerous,” the agency wrote in a statement.
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