NEW DELHI: New Delhi endured its coldest day in 40 years on Sunday as temperatures fell to three degrees Celsius during a cold snap across northern India.

As thousands of homeless people sought places in temporary shelters, more than 80 people were reported to have died due to the cold weather in Uttar Pradesh.

“We have reports that 17 people have died in the last 24 hours,” K.K Sinha, a disaster management official in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, said on Monday. “So far 86 people have died in the winter chill over the last week.”

Local authorities have been ordered to arrange bonfires on street corners as well as shelters to save the homeless.

“Sunday was Delhis coldest day in the last four decades and we expect a further dip in the temperature in the coming days,” an official of the meteorological department said.

The Himalayan town of Leh, in the Ladakh region of occupied Kashmir, recorded a night temperature of minus 20.2 degrees Celsius. Most areas of northern India have ordered all schools to close until Jan 15.—AFP