Twenty-five people have died in Orissa while Rajasthan accounted for 20 more deaths to the 106 toll earlier. A Bhubaneswar report said hundreds of people have been admitted to hospitals and small clinics in western Orissa where the mercury has been hovering near the 47 degree celsius mark for the last seven days.

As many as 17 people have died in Sambalpur, five in Jharsuguda and one each in Angul, Rourkela and Bolangir. The meteorological office has predicted that the heat wave in western Orissa was likely to continue for the next 72 hours. Dholpur and Bikaner towns recorded the maximum temperature of 49 degrees celsius on Tuesday. In Dholpur, the mercury is over the 49 degree mark.

Nine deaths were reported overnight from Alwar district while five people died in Kota, two in Jaipur and one each in Dholpur, Bharatpur, Ajmer and Sawai Madhopur districts.

In thenorth west, the death toll has risen to seven with six more deaths reported overnight. While six persons have died in Punjab, one died in Chandigarh. Hot surface winds continued to sweep the Punjab plains. Patiala records 47 degrees celsius, followed by Ludhiana (46.2), Amritsar (45.7) and Jalandhar (43.5). In Haryana, Hisar was the hottest at 46.9 degrees. Rohtak (46.1), Karnal (44.9) and Ambala (43.7) also continued to reel under the sun's fury. Delhi continued to swelter at 46 degrees celsius. In Himachal Pradesh, Sundernagar recorded the highest temperature at 40.4 degrees celsius, followed by Nahan (38.8), Bhunter (37.4), Dharamshala (37) and Solan (36.5). Jammu was hot at 43.8 degrees celsius while Srinagar recorded 28 degrees. Down south, Chennai remained hot at 42.7 degrees celsius.

The weather office has said the condition was likely to continue for the next two days. As many as 30 deaths were reported since yesterday from coastal Andhra and parts of Telangana. With five more persons fallingvictims to the heat in the twin cities today, the death roll has gone up to 71. While 15 deaths were reported from East Godavari district today, ten persons died in West Godavari, Khammam and Adilabad districts.