Tehran, Jul 27 (IANS): The Iranian government has announced that all state centres, organisations and banks will shut down on Sunday due to the hot weather, the official state news agency reported.

The decision was made owing to the continuation of the unprecedented high temperatures in the country to protect the citizens' health and manage domestic energy consumption, IRNA news agency quoted the Iranian government as saying.

The statement, however, said the closures did not apply to services and emergency centres, Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the IRNA, all state centres across the country reduced their working time on Saturday to four hours, starting from 6:00 a.m. local time.

A heatwave arriving in Iran a few days ago raised temperatures in most cities to near and above 40 degrees Celsius.

During the past 48 hours, the temperature in the Iranian capital, Tehran, rose to 40 degrees Celsius during the warmest hours. Tehran is expected to experience temperatures as high as 41 degrees Celsius on Saturday and Sunday.

During the past 24 hours, Varamin County, southeast of Tehran, was the hottest region in the province, with its temperature reaching a maximum of 43.2 degrees Celsius.