MOSCOW -- Russians, used to wrapping up warm against sub-zero temperatures, are struggling to cope with months of scorching heat, which has left hundreds dead from drowning in rivers and lakes.
The capital has also been surrounded by a swathe of forest fires while locusts are swarming over regions in the east.More than 200 people have drowned in Moscow since June, most of whom were seeking relief from a heat wave with a combination of cold water and alcoholic drinks, a spokeswoman at Moscow's Health Committee said on Friday.
The heat, with temperatures staying above 30 degrees Celsius (above 85 degrees Fahrenheit) for most of the last two months, has driven dozens of Russians out of Moscow to cooler climes.
"Drink a little water often," health officials advised Russians, who are used to freezing winters when temperatures can fall to minus 25 degrees Celsius.
The heat has also sparked a series of brutal murders, Moscow's Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said recently, citing figures from police files.
It said one man hit his wife over the head with a stool after she begged him to buy an air conditioner and then locked her body in the refigerator to cool off.
Another man who had been married only three days stabbed his new wife to death after an argument over who would go out into the hot streets to buy cold juice.
Forest fires, sparked by the dry heat on peat bogs outside Moscow, circle the capital and winds fanning the flames have sent a thin layer of smoke over some suburbs, eyewitnesses said.
"For a few days now, people in the eastern, southeastern and northeastern regions of the capital have been living in ash," Moscow's Moskovsky Komsomolets said.
Health officials have voiced fears that the smoke could lead to bronchitis, cause asthma sufferers and the old to suffer and lead to cancer in some cases.
"The situation is getting worse and worse, and is close to getting out of control," Valery Shubin, head of the government's department for forests, said in televised comments.