"The toll in the state has gone up to 44," senior medical official Ramesh Mohan Upadhaya told AFP, referring to northern Uttar Pradesh, of which Lucknow is the capital.

Eleven deaths were reported from neighbouring Bihar state in the same period, the Press Trust of India said quoting unnamed sources. Two more deaths were reported from Haryana and West Bengal states.

The weather office predicted a further fall in temperatures, which plunged below zero degree celsius (32 degree Fahrenheit) in a few places in northern India.

Officials in Uttar Pradesh have ordered bonfires to be lit in public places so that poor people can warm themselves.

Each year scores of homeless people in India die due to cold because of inadequate food and clothing.

Almost 200 people froze to death in the country's north last winter.