The latest deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh state, India's most populous and one of its poorest provinces, police said in the state capital Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh, where a fifth of the population are homeless, so far accounts for 104 of the deaths since the cold snap hit northern Indian in early December, police spokesman Avinash Mehrotra told AFP.

The unrelenting bad weather, compounded by an erratic power supply, has also claimed 18 lives in the northern state of Punjab and another four in nearby Haryana, an official said.

Temperatures in many cities across the northern belt dipped several degrees below normal.

New Delhi recorded 0.2 degrees Celsius (32.36 degrees Fahrenheit) Sunday, the coldest day in 70 years, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said.

Schoolchildren in New Delhi had something to rejoice about as the city government ordered schools in the capital to remain closed till Thursday.

Karnal in Haryana state adjoining New Delhi shivered at 0.1 Celsius, eight degrees below normal for this time of the year, PTI said quoting weather officials.

Airports across northern Indian reported chaos in scheduled flights as fog reduced visibility on the runways. Several inter-state train services were also cancelled and some more delayed because of thick fog.

Last year, some 420 people died from cold in Uttar Pradesh alone.

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