Cold snap death toll rises to 33 in India

INDIA: The death toll from a cold snap sweeping India rose to 33 Wednesday with the northern state of Uttar Pradesh accounting for 32 of the casualties, officials said.

Three homeless persons died of cold overnight in Uttar Pradesh state's Mahoba district, while another man died in nearby Haryana state, relief officials said in provincial capital Lucknow.

Mercury dropped to its lowest of the season at 1.9 degrees Celsius (35.42 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rajasthan state, while it slid to six degrees Celsius (42.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in New Delhi, the weather office said.

"The cold wave is likely to continue for the rest of the week across northern India," a spokesman from the regional weather office said.

The cold snap settled over northern India in the last week of December. Officials in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, have ordered bonfires to be lit in public places so that the poor can warm themselves. Meanwhile a cold spell sweeping northern Bangladesh left at least 17 people dead in past three days while dense fog disrupted public transportation in the region near the Himalayan foothills, news reports said Thursday.

The deaths were reported in a region where temperatures dropped to 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit), below normal in this impoverished tropical nation, United News of Bangladesh news agency reported.

Most victims were elderly people and children from poor families, the reports said. Many of the victims suffered from fevers or pneumonia, or died of exposure.

Lucknow,Dhaka, Thursday, AFP, AP