LUCKNOW, India: Police say more than 100 people have died of exposure as northern India deals with historically cold temperatures.

Police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said Thursday that at least 114 people have died from the cold in the state of Uttar Pradesh. At least 23 of those died in the past 24 hours.

Srivastava said many of the dead were poor people whose bodies were found on sidewalks or in parks.

The weather department said temperatures in the state were 4 to 10 degrees Celsius (7 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal.

Temperatures in New Delhi, which borders Uttar Pradesh, hit a high Wednesday of 9.8 degrees (49.6 Fahrenheit), the lowest maximum temperature in the capital since 1969.