"Nobody is looking for scapegoats, but all of this research helps to avoid problems in the future," Sirchia told a news conference.

France was by far the worst hit by the heatwave, which is believed to have claimed up to 13,600 lives there. Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands also suffered with more than 1,000 deaths in each country linked to the heat.

The heatwave hit Italy during the peak holiday period when many older people were left to fend for themselves in large cities as temperatures hovered near 40 Celsius (104F) for weeks on end.

Many pharmacies and food stores close during the holidays and basic services are cut back while Italy's traditional lack of air conditioning in homes aggravated the problem.

Some cities like Turin and Genoa reported a huge jump of up to 40 percent in deaths during the heatwave.

In Genoa, priests took the extraordinary step of allowing funerals on Sundays due to the high demand and in many cities cemetery employees had to cut short their vacations.