New Delhi, June 04: Searing heatwave battering many parts of India today claimed 158 more lives pushing the death toll close to 1300 as mercury zoomed at many places making life miserable for the people with no respite in sight. As many as 144 people succumbed to soaring temperatures in worst-hit Andhra Pradesh raising the number of fatalities to 1208 since the onset of unusually hot weather in the state.

Six people died of sunstroke in Rajasthan, three in Punjab, two each in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and one in Gujarat as Orissa's Balangir district sizzled at 49.1 degree Celsius.

Churu in Rajasthan reeled under intense heat with mercury shooting to 49 degrees Celsius.

Temperature topped 47 degrees Celsius in Nagpur in Maharashtra which had registered a record high in 72 years yesterday at 47.2 degrees.

Bureau Report