[Anchor]

A deadly heatwave sweeping across Europe has led to brawls over air conditioners in France. As a major supermarket chain held a half-price sale, the scene turned into chaos when the crowd far exceeded the available stock.

Paris correspondent Kwon Yeongin reports.

[Reporter]

People gathered in front of a large supermarket from early in the morning.

As soon as the doors opened, the orderly lines vanished, and punches were thrown by those angered by people cutting in line.

Inside the store, intense scuffles broke out as shoppers fought to get their hands on air conditioners, clinging to the units even while screaming.

One man was seen forcibly snatching an air conditioner away from a woman.

Another woman, who managed to grab two electric fans instead of an air conditioner, was seen collapsed as if she had fainted.

This incident occurred on July 2, local time, during a cooling appliance discount event held by a major supermarket chain in France.

France, which suffered through a heatwave exceeding 40°C (104°F) late last month, had already run out of air conditioner stock. When the half-price units were released, the situation descended into chaos.

[Aziz / Merchant near the supermarket: It was like a war zone. It was a mess. Mothers were collapsing in the middle of the fights, people were shoving each other, fathers were hitting people—I have never seen anything like that in my life.]

In France, where there are regulations on air conditioner installation, the penetration rate of air conditioning is around 25%.

Amid the deadly heat, the issue of air conditioning has even turned into a political dispute between the far-right, which advocates for the installation of large-scale cooling facilities in hospitals and schools, and the left, which opposes it due to carbon emissions.

In other European countries such as Germany and the UK, demand for portable air conditioners that do not require outdoor units—and thus avoid regulations—has skyrocketed, leaving them unavailable even at a premium.

[Oliver Horak / UK citizen: The UK is not prepared for the heat at all. When you go to other countries, it becomes very clear how much better they have built their (cooling) infrastructure.]

With excess deaths caused by the heatwave exceeding 3,000 in France and Spain alone, more extreme heat is forecast for Europe this coming weekend.

As wildfires spread, particularly across Southern Europe, concerns over a catastrophic heatwave are growing.

Reported by Kim Si-nae | Video by Chae Cheol-ho | Source: X (@europa, @inst_Actu, @french_report78)