TV host goes into fridge to beat the heat

Cairo: Celebrated Egyptian TV presenter, Jaber Al Qarmuti, got off to a literally icy start in Wednesday night’s episode of his popular programme as the thermometre shot up in Egypt.

Al Qarmuti appeared squeezed inside a refrigerator in the live broadcasting of his programme “Headlines” on private ONTV.

“Today (Wednesday) was an extraordinary day in our climate-related life,” Al Qarmuti said. Clad in a T-shirt and jeans, Al Qarmuti, known for his untraditional way of presentation, emerged from the machine carrying a piece of snow.

“It was a very hard day. Over the past 20 or 30 years, we haven’t seen a day like this. The temperatures reached nearly 50 degrees Celsius in the street.”

Cairo and most parts of Egypt on Wednesday sweltered in a heat wave, the worst of its kind this summer. The scorching weather forced many residents of populous Cairo to remain indoors. Others who, had to go out on the streets, wore caps or impoverished newspapers as protective shields.

The country was also hit by a sandstorm that lowered visibility and forced the shutdown of the Burj Al Arab airport in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria

Fifteen fires, caused by the high temperatures, broke out in several areas of Egypt, leaving 57 people sustaining burns, the Health Ministry said.