At least eleven people died on Sunday after suffering from sunstroke on the outskirts of Mumbai at an event attended by India’s home minister.
Hundreds of thousands of people attended an award function where federal home minister Amit Shah presented an award to a well-known social activist, on the outskirts of the country’s financial capital.
The event was held outdoors in the afternoon in Khargar, where the maximum temperature recorded was 38C, considered normal for this time of the year. However humidity was quite high.
Roughly 50 people were admitted to hospital after the event and 11 had died, Maharashtra’s chief minister, Eknath Shinde, told reporters late on Sunday night.
Eight of the dead are women, mostly elderly.
It is expected that the death toll may increase in the coming days. More than 120 people suffered from dehydration.
India is likely to experience heat waves between March and May, the weather office said in February this year.
