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Homeless man 'freezes to death' in sub-zero Paris

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
Homeless man 'freezes to death' in sub-zero Paris
File photo: AFP

A homeless man died in Paris on Thursday morning, as temperatures plunged below zero.

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The 66-year-old man died in the eighth arrondissement, on the right bank of the River Seine, according to the homeless support group Les Enfants du Canal.  
 
His body was found at the entrance of a parking garage where he usually slept. Emergency service workers called to the scene were unable to revive him.  
 
The man is understood to have suffered a cardiac arrest early in the morning, after the temperature dropped below 0C during the night for the third night in a row.
 
An autopsy is expected to confirm the cause of death. 
 
The man had been requesting emergency accommodation since December 9th, but to no avail, reported Le Parisien
 
The support group Les Enfants du Canal wrote on Facebook that it was "deeply saddened" to announce the death. 
 
"We cannot find the words for our anger. Losing him, just as we have lost hundreds each year, is not an inevitability but the result of senseless and irresponsible policies.," the group said.
 
Le Parisien reported that 21 homeless people have died this year alone. The average age of those people was 50. Almost 450 died in 2015.
 
There are around 140,000 thousand "sans abri" in France, meaning those who live on the streets, in parks, under bridges and in makeshift camps. 
 
That number, reported in an annual study by housing charity Fondation Abbé Pierre last year, is made up of young and old people, the jobless, former prison inmates and asylum seekers.
 

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