NEW DELHI: More than 10 people were confirmed to have died in rain-related incidents across the country as torrential monsoon showers unleashed widespread destruction across several parts of the country on Thursday, inundating roads, uprooting trees, damaging property and disrupting normal life.
Authorities scrambled to restore normalcy amid forecasts of more rain, with people wading through knee-deep water in residential areas in several cities and traffic crawling on major roads and highways.
Fresh floods and landslides were reported in Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, with rising water levels in a river submerging a 100-foot iron bridge in Kinnaur.
Relentless monsoon rain battered Delhi, inundating roads, uprooting trees and triggering widespread traffic snarls. The downpour also helped the national capital record its cleanest air since September 2023, with parts of the city receiving over 160 mm of rainfall.
The death toll in the building collapse in Rohini rose to three. Waterlogging was reported from several areas, including Vikas Marg, parts of East Delhi, Sangam Vihar, the New Delhi railway station area, Munirka, Sadar Bazar, Alipur, Burari, Badarpur and Dwarka.
In Alipur, several trucks and cars were partially submerged, disrupting traffic and affecting commuters.
Traffic was also disrupted at ITO, Rohtak Road, the Mehrauli-Badarpur (MB) Road, NH-48, Ring Road, Punjabi Bagh and Shadipur due to waterlogging and heavy congestion.
According to the Delhi Fire Service (DFS), two trees fell at separate locations on Raja Dhir Singh Marg in East of Kailash, while one tree each fell on Guru Ravidas Marg in the Kalkaji-Govindpuri area and Dhingra Marg. Another large tree fell on a parked car in Ranjeet Nagar.
In Surat, which was battered by rain on Wednesday, floodwaters that caused extensive damage in the city were slowly receding on Thursday. Six more bodies were recovered from the city, with rain-related incidents claiming the lives of 17 people over the past few days. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited Surat to review the situation in the city.
Rescue operations also continued at the site of a building that collapsed a day earlier at a waste-to-energy plant in Maharashtra’s Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune after a massive mound of garbage gave way due to heavy rain.
One body was recovered on Thursday, while around eight people are still feared trapped under the debris. Nine people have been rescued so far.
A 64-year-old man who was injured in a treefall incident in Thane city amid very heavy rains earlier died on Thursday.
In Uttar Pradesh, seven people died on Thursday in rain-related incidents.
Two women died after being struck by lightning in separate villages of the Sant Kabir Nagar district, while a 14-year-old boy was killed in Kushinagar after lightning struck him. In Bulandshahr, two people were killed and four others injured after a wall collapsed on makeshift tents erected beside it in the Mundakheda village of Khurja following heavy rain, officials said.
In in Thanabhawan town of Shamli district, a man died and his two sons were seriously injured after the wall of a tin shed collapsed on them. In Ghaziabad, a three-year-old girl, Pallavi, drowned after being swept into a waterlogged drain outside her house in Sarvodaya Colony, they added.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday issued a 'red alert' for parts of western UP, forecasting heavy to extremely heavy rainfall over the next 24 hours as monsoon activity intensified across the state, with rain-related incidents claiming at least five lives.
The weather office said widespread rainfall activity is expected across the state till July 11.
In Arunachal Pradesh, fresh floods and landslides were reported across six districts, damaging houses, roads and crops.
Keyi Panyor, Upper Siang, Tirap, Changlang, Papum Pare and Upper Subansiri suffered damage in the last 24 hours, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) said.
Rainfall is expected to ease from Friday, with an 'orange' alert issued only for Papum Pare, Lower Dibang Valley and Tirap districts that day.
An inter-ministerial central team from the Ministry of Home Affairs visited flood-hit East Siang and Lower Siang districts of Arunachal Pradesh to assess the extent of damage caused by the recent floods and evaluate the need for additional financial assistance from the Centre.
In Himachal Pradesh, a landslide occurred near Maling Nallah on the old Hindustan Tibet road (NH-5) in the Kuppa area of Kinnaur district, damaging three houses, a cowshed, and some orchards and causing large boulders to block the road for a few hours.
A 100-foot iron bridge was completely submerged amid rising water levels in a river in Kinnaur, cutting off access to Lippa village.
Since Wednesday evening, moderate to heavy rains continued to lash parts of the state, with Shimla, Kangra and Jot receiving thunderstorms and lightning.
Due to rainfall since Wednesday, water levels in many of the district's rivers and streams have risen significantly above normal.
The Shimla Met Office issued a yellow alert for heavy rains at isolated places in the state till July 15.
Uttarakhand remained on high alert as incessant rainfall over the last 24 hours triggered landslides and raised water levels in rivers. Traffic was disrupted on 107 routes, including nine state highways. The IMD issued a 'red' alert for seven districts, including Dehradun, and an 'orange' alert for the remaining districts for Thursday.
Schools for Classes 1 to 12 remained closed in four districts, including Dehradun, due to the rain.
In Rajasthan, widespread rainfall soaked parts of the state, with the Met department forecasting extremely heavy rainfall in isolated areas of Kota and Bharatpur divisions on Thursday.
Many parts of Haryana and Punjab also received rain on Thursday.
In Gurugram, a section of the balcony of a luxury apartment complex collapsed Thursday morning, though no injuries were reported.
Among other parts of the national capital region, widespread waterlogging and traffic disruptions were reported from Noida, Ghaziabad, Ghazipur and Faridabad.
In Noida, areas including Sectors 16, 33, 12, 62 and parts of the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway were inundated, leaving vehicles stranded and forcing commuters to wade through flooded roads.
Severe waterlogging near the Ghazipur border on National Highway-9 triggered long traffic snarls on the Delhi-Ghaziabad route.
The Ghaziabad district administration declared a holiday in government schools as authorities grappled with rain-induced disruption.
A section of road in Ghaziabad's Vasundhara caved in beside an under-construction basement following heavy rainfall, sending a parked car and a scooter into the pit. No one was injured in the incident.
The IMD announced on Thursday that the southwest monsoon has further advanced into the remaining parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, covering the entire country.
So far in July, India has witnessed a large surplus of rainfall. While the normal rainfall in the first nine days of the month is 73.8 mm, the country as a whole has seen 101.9 mm of rainfall.
As heavy rains continued in parts of Kerala, the IMD on Thursday issued an orange alert in three districts -- Malappuram, Kozhikode, and Wayanad.
It also issued a yellow alert in six other districts -- Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Kannur and Kasaragod -- for the day.
The death toll in the Wayanad landslide rose to six on Thursday with the recovery of three more bodies from the disaster site, district officials said. Search operations continued for the two persons still missing in the incident.