Freezing winter takes 25 more lives in northern India (Roundup)

NEW DELHI - As many as 25 deaths were reported Monday from different states as the freezing winter continued to show no mercy to the shelterless in northern India.

Uttar Pradesh continued to suffer the brunt of the cold wave with eight more deaths reported Monday, taking the toll to 90.

Winter related accidents compunded the gravity of the situation.

Eight people died in different parts of Haryana over the weekend due to suffocation caused by carbon monoxide gas when they lit angithis (coal fires) to keep themselves warm.

Acording to Haryana Police, four hotel workers from Nepal were found dead Sunday in their room in Tohana town in Fatehabad district.

Two migrants working at a dhaba (roadside eatery) died in Sirsa and two, including a woman, in Yamunanagar.

The deaths were caused when they lit coal fires to fight the cold leaving no escape for the carbon gas, police said.

Seven homeless people have died so far in the national capital.

Six children and a security guard suffered burn injuries and were rushed to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi Monday morning after a can containing chemicals exploded in a bonfire outside a factory, police said.

The children, ragpickers in the south Delhi’s Okhla industrial area, were sitting around the fire lit out of wastes to keep themselves warm. The can exploded and the children got caught in the fire.

Delhi had a sunny morning Monday, but the cold persisted. The day temperature hovered between 15.6 and 4.6 degrees.

The weather office forecast warmer days later this week, followed by chances of a light shower.

More snowfall and clear skies pulled the day temperature down below freezing point in the Himalayan hill towns.

Dry cold weather kept Jammu and Kashmir shivering through another day with more snow expected later in the week, according to the Srinagar weather office.

Similar conditions prevailed in Himachal Pradesh with Shimla and other resort towns reeling under the intense cold wave.

The fog woes of Chandigarh also continued Monday when the airport had to remain closed for the sixth day. Rail and road traffic too were affected as dense fog enveloped cities most places in Punjab and Haryana.

The minimum temperature in cities like Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Ambala, Hisar and Karnal remained below 5 degrees while Narnaul in Haryana was the coldest at 1.2 degrees.

Morning fog in Rajastan capital Jaipur affected rail traffic, said officials. Several trains were running late by four to eight hours, they said.