SOARING temperatures are continuing to scorch two-thirds of the United States with the brutal heatwave blamed for causing at least six deaths in a week, as well as an emergency in New York as roads begin to buckle.

Such is the extreme heat that police officers in Braintree, Massachusetts, asked residents ‘to hold off’ on all criminal activity until the extreme heat is over.

Officers said Saturday in a tongue-in-cheek Facebook post: “Folks. Due to the extreme heat, we are asking anyone thinking of doing criminal activity to hold off until Monday.

“It is straight up hot as soccer balls out there. Conducting criminal activity, in this extreme heat is next level henchmen status, and also very dangerous.”

“Stay home, blast the AC, binge ‘Stranger Things’ Season 3, play with the face app, practice karate in your basement. We will all meet again Monday when it’s cooler.”

At least six deaths were blamed on the excessive heat: four people died in Maryland, while one died in Arizona and another died in Arkansas, CBS reported.

The crushing mass of hot air is likely to blanket the region, home to a third of the U.S. population, through Sunday with little overnight relief, said meteorologist David Roth of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

“There are 124 million people under a heat advisory or excessive heat warning — that’s a third of the population,” Roth said.

As of Friday, the heat wave sprawled from Kansas to the Atlantic Coast, and from South Carolina north to Maine. It was expected to intensify the next days.

On Friday night, a massive power outage was reported in the Detroit metro area, affecting some 80,000 customers of DTE Energy. (SD-Agencies)