After a week of sudden hot weather in northern France, thousands of
fish in the River Seine near Rouen died of suffocation when oxygen levels
in the water abruptly dropped by more than half.
The local authorities said this was due to the 鈥榚xceptional coinciding
of four natural phenomena鈥�: the sharp rise in water temperature, high tides,
slow currents and previous heavy rainfall. Rainstorms caused the sewers
to overflow and also flushed surface pollution into the water.
