An adolescent girl died of heat wave while she along with her friend was making reels in the Sonarpur area of South 24-Parganas district.
The incident happened at Radhagobinda Pally, under Sonarpur police station on Wednesday afternoon when mercury crossed 41 degrees Celsius on an average in most of the south Bengal districts.
According to local police sources, ignoring the heat wave sweeping across south Bengal Alpana Mondal along with her friend was making reels under scorching sun, near her residence around 2.30pm. She collapsed and fell on the ground. Her parents were not at home when the incident occurred.
Local residents said she was rushed to a nearby Sonarpur rural hospital where she was declared dead by doctors.
Police have registered an unnatural death case and the body has been sent to the police morgue for post-mortem.
Bengal is reeling under severe heat wave with temperature crossing 40 degrees Celsius in many districts across the state.
Alipore Met office has sounded a red alert on heat wave for next four days in the several districts mainly in East and West Midnapore, West Burdwan, Bankura, Jhargram, North Dinajpur and Malda.
The Met office also predicted that the temperature might shoot up further by two to four notches in the next couple of days in Gangetic Bengal. There is also no possibility of rain in south Bengal.
Kolkata recorded 41.6 degrees Celsius on Thursday afternoon, according to the weather office. The Met office said that this is the first time in the last 44 years since 1980 that the city recorded such a high temperature.
The temperature in Midnapore crossed the 42 degrees Celsius mark.