India: Heatstroke kills 11 at award event

At least eleven people have died after suffering from heatstroke at an award event attended by India’s home minister on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended the award function on Sunday afternoon where federal home minister Amit Shah presented an award to a well-known social activist, on the outskirts of the country’s financial capital of Mumbai in Maharashtra.

Around 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.

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The event was held outdoors in the afternoon in Khargar, where the maximum temperature recorded was 38 degrees Celsius (100.4°F), normal for this time of the year.

India is likely to experience heat waves between March and May, the weather office said in February this year.

Zainab Sa’id