Heat wave sweeps east, north; claims 20 lives in WB, J'khand

New Delhi, Jun 4: Twenty people perished in the

in

and Jharkhand as vast swathes of the country's northern and eastern plains continued to swelter under temperatures above the normal mark. The national capital, Delhi, however, got some respite from the heat with the mercury dropping marginally from yesterday's 42.4 degrees Celsius to 41.9 degrees Celsius and the minimum from 29.7 to 29 degrees Celsius.

As many as 16 people succumbed to the blistering heat over the last three days in West Bengal, where the average temperature hovered around 45 degrees Celsius. While nine people died in Burdwan district, three each succumbed to sunstroke in Kolkata and Purulia district. Four persons died of heat stroke in Dumka district of Jharkhand, taking the total number of death to five in the state.

In the north, dust storms and isolated rains hit Himachal Pradesh and adjacent Uttarakhand, but did not help in taming the heat, particularly in the latter state. The sun continued to scorch Uttar Pradesh as well, with the mercury breaching the 45 degrees Celsius mark at several places in the state. Day temperature rose appreciably above normal in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Faizabad, Lucknow, Meerut and Moradabad divisions and above normal in Kanpur and Jhansi divisions. Allahabad remained the hottest place in the state, recording 46.9 degrees Celsius, followed by Hamirpur at 46.2 degrees Celsius, Varanasi 45.8 degrees Celsius and Banda 45.6 degrees Celsius.

Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh remained under the grip of unrelenting heat wave despite a slight dip in maximum temperatures at a few places in the region.

PTI