India heat wave toll tops 1,000

A man shades himself from the sun with an umbrella as he walks across the dry bed of the Upper Lake in Bhopal, India. The lake was the main water source for Bhopal city residents

NEW DELHI, India -- New reports from remote areas in India indicate that more than 1,000 people died during a fierce heat wave that gripped the nation earlier this month.

Elderly people account for most of the deaths, unable to bear temperatures that hit 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of the southern Andhra Pradesh state during the week of May 9-15.

In some areas, temperatures were so extreme that many tin-roofed homes turned into ovens, water catchments dried up and animals collapsed from the heat.

All the deaths occurred over those seven days, already regarded as the highest one-week death toll from a heat wave in Indian history.

The number of dead is now at 1,030 according to reports that have been trickling in from rural areas in the state, The Associated Press reports.

The toll "is much worse than we had anticipated," relief commissioner D.C. Roshaiah in Hyderabad, the state capital, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"We are getting information very slowly from the remote rural areas."

Further deaths in the second week of the heat wave were not expected to be as numerous due to a relative easing of temperatures.

Some regions in the state received additional relief with cooling monsoon rains, but coastal areas have continued to bake.

The state government says it will provide compensation of 50,000 rupees ($1,000) for the families of those who died from the heat.