Some 30% of the Russians have begun panicky behavior during the heat wave and fires across Russia, the acting director of the Serbsky National Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry said on Wednesday.
Some 30% believe the end of the world is coming and involuntarily panic, according to Zurab Keklidze.
"These people believe the heat would reach not 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), but 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit). They exaggerate, saying it is divine retribution and a sign of Doomsday and begin sparking lots of rumors," Keklidze said.
Some 70% of Russians take the situation with the heat wave normally, some 15% ignore the heat altogether.
Some psychologists have noted that the abnormal heat has provoked a wave of strange phobias. Some people are afraid to lose the roof over their head, others are afraid of being suffocated by poisonous smog while they are sleeping at night, and for that reason just avoid sleeping at night.
A scorching heat wave has gripped much of European Russia since mid-June, sparking wildfires and causing the worst drought in decades.
Moscow and a dozen other cities have been wrapped in a thick layer of smog. Health experts say pollution levels are so high that breathing has become as dangerous as smoking several packets of cigarettes a day.
MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti)
