JAMSHEDPUR, APR 26 (PTI) : The scorching heat sweeping across the steel city and its surrounding areas in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand for the last few days has claimed the life of a policeman.

Forty-year-old constable, Virendra Pandy, felt uneasy as soon as he returned home from duty last afternoon. Doctors at the MGM hospital declared him brought dead when he was taken there, the police said.

The exact cause behind the death would be known after post-mortem but he was suspected to have died of sunstroke, hospital sources said. Meanwhile, searing heat continued to prevail in the steel city and its adjacent areas with the mercury hovering over 40 degree celsius. 

While the maximum temperature recorded here was 42.6 degree celsius yesterday, the steel city experienced the hottest day of the season at 42.9 degree celsius on Thursday, met office sources said.

Several schools here, like elsewhere in the state, have curtailed school hours to prevent children from getting sunstrokes.

While Bokaro recorded 45 degrees celsius, Ranchi, once the summer capital of undivided Bihar, experienced 39 degrees yesterday.

Temperatures in most of the other towns hovered around 40 degrees celsius.