NEW DELHI: Tempers are running high in the Indian capital as the city reels under an intense heatwave, with temperatures soaring to around 44 deg C.

Over half a dozen Indian states have been affected and officials say that at least 24 people have died as a result of the heat.

The situation has not been helped by prolonged power outages lasting eight to 12 hours in New Delhi neighbourhoods and erratic water supplies over the past few days.

Residents of Dilshad Garden in East Delhi and Lado Sarai in the city's south-west attacked the local offices of the electricity distribution company after enduring power outages of 10-12 hours.

People even blocked roads to register their anger and the police had to resort to baton charge to disperse angry mobs.

Protests over water shortages turned violent in Sangam Vihar locality, leaving nine people injured, days after one person died in a scuffle in a queue at a public water tap in the Okhla industrial area.

'The heat is unbearable. We cannot even switch on the fan, let alone the air-conditioner. Inside the house, it's like a furnace,' said Mr P.R. Menon, 81, of Dilshad Garden, a heart patient.

In the affluent Gurgaon suburb, an IT, manufacturing and shopping centre, people have taken to sleeping in their cars with the air-conditioner on.

'I have no other option but to switch on the air-conditioner of my car for a couple of hours of sound sleep,' Mr Rajiv Puri, a senior executive with a state-owned company, was quoted as saying in Hindustan Times.

'My children are hanging out in malls as we cannot even run fans at home,' he said.

Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.