LAHAN: The biting winter cold has claimed the lives of five people, including four women, within a week in a single ward of Karjanha Municipality in Siraha district.

The latest victim of the harsh winter weather condition is 71-year-old Amirati Devi Yadav of Karjanha Municipality- 6, who died of hypothermia on Sunday.

Before this, Seema Devi Saha (62) died of excessive cold on January 12 and three other persons — Bishwanath Saha (52), Runadevi Sada (70), and Ram Sunair Saha (72) — succumbed to cold on January 10, all from the same ward of the Municipality.

According to Jagdish Mahato, the Ward chairman, all the victims came from families with poor economic background. He demanded that the Municipality should provide the obsequies expenses to the families of the deceased.

Meanwhile, a woman, Sitadevi Bhattarai (65), died due to excessive cold at Lahan Municipality-6 of Siraha district on Sunday.

With this, the death toll from cold in Siraha district has reached 13. Life in Siraha has been badly affected by the biting cold with the number of patients suffering from cold and cough, cold diarrhoea, and fever increasingly rising at the local hospitals.