(CTN News) – On Wednesday, 11 people died in India due to harsh weather conditions, including heatwaves, landslides, and floods, according to government and media reports.
On Tuesday, the country’s capital city, New Delhi, was scorching due to intense heatwave conditions, making it the hottest night in six years.
According to the Times of India, heatstroke caused at least five deaths in hospitals in the capital city. On Tuesday night, landslides and floods in India’s northeastern state of Assam killed at least six people, according to officials cited by Reuters.
“A landslide buried a woman and her three daughters alive,” Siju Das, a state disaster management official, said over the phone.
“Their house was on a slope, and they died on the spot around midnight,” he added, adding that the bodies were found following a three-hour search effort by rescue workers.
“A three-year-old was killed too.”
This summer, excessive heat is plaguing billions of people in Asia, which scientists attribute to human-caused climate change.
Temperatures in Delhi and the adjoining desert state of Rajasthan have risen to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) since March, while the country’s northwest and east have seen more than twice as many heatwave days this season.
Fewer thunderstorms and warm winds from neighbouring desert regions caused these conditions.
Over 160,000 people were affected in Assam as floods rose above the danger level in the Kopili, one of the Brahmaputra’s main tributaries.
More than 30 people have perished in the state since the end of May as a result of strong rain-induced floods and landslides, according to officials.