Temperature reaches scorching 39.2 degrees Celsius in western Japan

A man scratches his neck as he walks in the heat of the sun in Tokyo, Thursday, July 11, 2013. The temperature was expected to rise to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in the metropolitan area. (Photo : AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

More than 30 schoolchildren were taken to hospitals due to heatstroke after attending an outdoor social studies program on Wednesday in a town of Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka, local press reported.

The incident happened after a total of 108 fourth-grade students at an elementary schools in Kasuya Town of the prefecture were participating in the social studies program held in a water purification plant, according to Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), Japan’s public broadcaster.

After local fire department received the first emergency call from the school at around noon local time, it repeatedly dispatched several ambulances and sent 32 children by the afternoon to hospitals in the town, the report said.

A family spends an afternoon playing on a beach at a park in Tokyo's Daiba bay area, Wednesday, July 10, 2013. (Photo : AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

The report added that the condition of most of the carried children became stable after treatments but five of them could not walk unaided.

The fire department and local police are continuing their investigation into details of the incident, but the report cited local rescue officials as saying that the children suffered excessive sweating had not been able to get enough water during the outdoor event on the muggy day.

Japan Meteorological Agency said temperatures in many places of western and central Japan reached over 35 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, while Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, registered 39.2 degrees, the highest temperature recorded in the basin city. <Xinhua/NEWSis>