Beijing has recorded its hottest June day in more than 60 years with the mercury touching 41.1C (105.9F), Chinese weather authorities say.

The city is experiencing a prolonged heatwave with extreme temperatures to persist until the end of June.

Several monthly heat records have been broken around China this year, prompting fears of an energy crunch.

Last month, the country's largest city Shanghai, with 25 million people living on the east coast, recorded its hottest May day in a century.

More than 21 million people live in Beijing, the nation's capital in the north.

On Thursday, a weather station in the city's north recorded a high of 41.8C.

Authorities earlier issued an orange alert, the second-most severe weather warning, saying that temperatures could reach 39C in the days to Saturday.

Local authorities in Beijing, Tianjin, and other cities in northern and eastern China, advised people to suspend outdoor work during the hottest parts of the day and to get medical help if they show symptoms of a heat stroke.

Some have also warned people and businesses to curb their electricity usage.

Last week, the National Energy Administration staged its first-ever emergency drill in China's eastern region, simulating a power surge and outage in the face of any large-scale power outages.

The situation was "relatively severe" in regards to power grid security, the agency said.