Cold tightened its grip on North claiming five lives, including two children, in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as icy winds swept most parts of the region plummeting temperatures by several notches below normal.
After the first day of the New Year offered some respite from bone chilling cold to Delhiites, the minimum temperature dipped to 5 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal and shallow to moderate fog was witnessed this morning.
The Srinagar-Jammu National Highway connecting Kashmir with the rest of the country remained closed for the third consecutive day as the Valley and Ladakh region reeled under intense cold conditions with the night temperature in Pahalgam plunging to the season's lowest of minus 12.2 degrees Celsius.
Cold waves swept Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh with minimum temperatures hovering several notches below normal even as fog reduced visibility this morning at some places.
Freezing cold swept Amritsar, which recorded a below normal low of 0.8 degrees Celsius.
In the past 24 hours three persons including 45-year-old Hariprasad of Andgau village, 7-year-old Neeraj of Daulatpur village and a 6-year-old girl from Diyanatnagar village died due to biting cold conditions in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki district.
Two beggars were found dead yesterday in open areas of Jalupura and Subhash Chowk in Jaipur which recorded season's lowest minimum temperature even as icy winds and fog continued unabated in Rajasthan affecting normal life and vehicular traffic.
