Hot and dusty desert winds have caused a heatwave across the plains of northern India, killing 74 people over the last week, officials and local media reports said yesterday.

Most of the dead were beggars, homeless and people working in the open hit by sunstrokes and dehydration.

The Press Trust of India put the toll at 74, including 15 in the western desert state of Rajasthan and nine in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh during the weekend.

Temperatures peaked on Saturday, reaching 48.9 degrees Celsius in Ganganagar in the desert state of Rajasthan, according to the Regional Meteorological Centre in New Delhi.

?It is a heatwave. After the next two days it will be over,? Bhan said, adding that it was caused by winds from the Thar desert, which spreads from Rajasthan into neighbouring Pakistan.