Heat warning for US hikers amid rescues and deaths

A woman hiking in Southern California has become the latest to die on a trail as the US experiences a period of intense summer heat.

San Diego police said the body of Diem Le Nguyen, 50, was found on Monday about a quarter of a mile (400m) off the Black Mountain trial, hours after she had made a distress call to fellow hikers saying she was “extremely hot and needed water”.

Her death follows several in Colorado and Arizona this month, and a number of near-fatal incidents across the country, as it struggles under a “heat dome” and some popular trail areas hit highs of 114F (about 46C).

In Colorado, Marsha Cook of Iowa collapsed and died on 10 June while attempting the “moderate to steep” hiking trail to the Colorado National Monument.

In Sedona, Arizona, a 44-year-old Pennsylvania woman collapsed and died of heat exhaustion on 14 June while hiking with her husband and two daughters.

Two days later, a 41-year-old man died on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon.

Although officials have not confirmed his death was heat related, the National National Park Service has recommended not hiking below the rim of the Grand Canyon during an excessive heat warning.

The warnings come after another California hiker was discovered 10 days after becoming lost in a landscape altered by recent wildfires.

Lukas McClish, 34, says he survived on wild berries and by drinking water he collected in his boot after getting lost near Santa Cruz.