The Ministry for Emergency Situations reported on Sunday that 49 people drowned on Saturday in water across Russia as scorching temperatures blanketed large areas of the country.

The ministry announced on Telegram that "65 incidents have been registered in the last 24 hours on the water bodies of the country - 49 deaths."

The Russian state news agency RIA reported that 10 drownings occurred on the same date a year earlier.

In the last week, Russians have experienced some of the most extreme temperatures in over a century. Moscow broke a record set in 1917, and cities in the largest country in the world are sweltering in temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius.

On Friday, the Russian Service for Hydrometeorology announced on its website an abnormally hot weekend was predicted for most of southern Europe in Russia, with temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some areas.

The emergency ministry reported that in Nizhny Novgorod, central Russia, a 10-year old girl drowned while her sister, aged six, was still missing. Divers are still looking for her.

The ministry reported that three people drowned in the Bashkiria Region, located between the Volga River, and the Ural Mountains. One of them was a 16-year old girl.