AFP, BENGALURU, India

Soaring temperatures at a hugely crowded airshow in India where organizers had hoped to break record attendance figures left at least five people dead, media reported yesterday.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along a beach in the blazing sun on Sunday with temperatures hitting 35°C at the air force show in the southern city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu state.

The Press Trust of India news agency, quoting government officials, yesterday said that five spectators had died from “heatstroke and exhaustion” during the show.

The Sarang Helicopter Display Team of the Indian Air Force perform at an air show in Chennai, India, on Sunday.

Photo: EPA-EFE

The Indian Express quoted a police officer as saying five people had died in separate incidents due to “dehydration and stress.”

One eyewitness who spoke to the newspaper said the sheer numbers of people was “suffocating,” while roads were reported to be jammed with traffic and trains overcrowded.

Broadcaster NDTV reported that the Indian Air Force had been “aggressively” pushing the event to set a record in the Limca Book of Records, the nation’s archive of records held by Indians, but Tamil Nadu Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said that the authorities had provided “adequate” facilities, including medics on standby and drinking water for the crowd.

Scorching summer temperatures are common in India, but years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heat waves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

Earlier this year, the nation was gripped by brutal temperatures surging more than 50°C.

Indian lawmaker Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, from the state’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, said reports of the deaths were “painful.”