The Indian government has declared that this week's record high of 52.9C (127.22F) in the nation's capital was 3 degrees too high.

Earth sciences minister Kiren Rijiju stated that the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had looked into the reading from the meteorological station at Mungeshpur, a crowded area of New Delhi, on Wednesday and "found a 3C sensor error."

The minister shared the findings of a draft report regarding the all-time high reading on X and stated, "Corrective measures are now in place." He did not provide an updated temperature reading for Wednesday.

The IMD said the maximum temperature reported by the Mungeshpur weather station “is not correct due to malfunctioning of the sensor”.

However, the city’s record for heat still appears to have been broken. Two weather stations in the capital reported temperatures of 49C (120.2F) and 49.1C (120.38F) for Wednesday. The IMD said these two stations had been checked and it did not report any sensor errors. The highest temperature previously recorded in New Delhi was 48.4C (119.12F) in May 1998, the draft IMD report said.

Severe heat has been affecting parts of India for days. On Friday, at least 33 people, including election officials on duty, died of suspected heatstroke in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the north, and Odisha in the east.