RAWALPINDI, Aug 4: At least 24 people were killed in the havoc brought by the season’s heaviest rain in the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad and surrounding areas on Friday.

Officials expected the death to rise as an unspecified number were missing in numerous incidents of vehicles and houses swept away by flash floods.

Residents of low-lying areas of the city had just started recovering from the destruction wreaked by the monsoon outburst of July 24 when Friday’s deluge submerged them into misery again.

In the worst incident, passengers of an overcrowded van were swept away by the raging water when the driver missed the bridge in the blinding rain and plunged the van into a nullah near Mundawal village.

Twelve passengers were rescued by the villagers but an unknown number were said to be missing.

The overcrowded pick-up (KT-2022) was coming from Pindi Ghaib and heading towards Rawat.

“The driver could not see the bridge pad over the nullah as it was overflowing and without the fence. As a result, a front wheel of the vehicle tumbled into the water and the vehicle vanished into the rain water,” a police inspector Chaudhry Safdar, told Dawn.

He said, the bodies of nine of the victims including eight women and a child have been recovered and handed over to their families while efforts are underway to trace the bodies of five missing children who are believed to have been died.

The victims of the van were said to be from the same family who were going to attend a wedding ceremony in Rawat.

A four-year-old boy was killed while his mother Zahida Bibi injured when the roof of their house collapsed during Friday’s downpour in Gujar Khan.

Met office said 212mm of rain fell on Friday, twice the amount that fell on July 24 which claimed about a dozen lives, destroyed property and flooded low-lying localities.

More rains are predicted for the next three days.

Luckily Friday’s downpour did not cause the notorious Leh nullah to break its banks but it did fill the Rawal Dam, located in Islamabad, beyond its capacity. The dam’s spillway was opened to release the excess water which inundated areas downstream.

Flood waters blocked the Islamabad Highway for four hours and caused landslides on the Kashmir Highway, snarling traffic on the busy highways.

District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas seemed unperturbed by the situation. “The situation is under control and there is no need to declare emergency in the city,” he told Dawn.

Four people died in the federal capital where a woman and her son were killed after the roof of their house caved in in Barakahu.

Azra Perveen and her seven-year-old son died when room of their house collapsed.

Imran Khan, 25, drowned in a nullah while catching fish in Shahzad Town while and Mohammad Aslam, 22, drowned in a pond in Sihala area.

A man drowned while taking bath in the Rawal Lake. His body was yet to be recovered by the divers.

Abdul Hameed was swept away in a nullah in Raheemabad Chaklala. While a boy was swept away in a nullah near Asghar Mall chowk, however the authorities did not confirm the boy’s death.

Meanwhile, 16 people including seven children, trapped in the rainwater in the suburb of Sadar Barooni area were evacuated by the divers of Navy and shifted to a safer place.

In another incident, six people were injured when the roof of a restaurant collapsed in the Westridge area.

Heavy rains on Friday paralysed normal life of the residents of the city as the roads and streets became inundated with rain water.

Water entered many houses of low-lying areas of the city causing damage to the household items and the people found it extremely hard to cope with the situation as there was no help from civic agencies.

“I am struggling since morning to keep the rain water out of my house,” Wahid, a resident of Dhok Ali Akbar, told Dawn, adding that his household items were also damaged.

He said he was worried about her old mother and children as his house had developed cracks because of continuing rains.

“I have nowhere to go with my family so I have decided not to leave my house to prevent any untoward accident to my family members,” he said. Wahid said there was scarcity of food items in his house but he was getting help from nowhere.

Lashing out at the civic agencies, he said the residents of the city have lost trust in management capability of these agencies as they have badly failed to cope with the flood-like situation in the city.

Commuters were also hard hit by the torrential rains as the vehicles were stuck on the flooded roads and the people had to struggle to get to their destinations.

The worst-hit areas were Sadiqabad, Dhok Ali Akbar, Pirwadahi, Amarpura, Dhok Khabba, Tench Bhatta, Gawalmandi, Dhok Elahi Bakhsh, Jhanda Chichi, Javed Colony, Mohanpura, Purana Qila, Nadeem Colony and Fauji Colony.

The heavy rain in Rawalpindi and its adjoining localities, which continued the whole day on Friday, took the Leh nullah close to the danger level.

He said four emergency camps had been set up in different parts of the city to tackle any emergency. These camps located at Muslim High School, Liaquat Bagh, Dheri Hasanabad, New Katarian and Pirwadhai. Police has been posted along the Leh Nullah to control any emergent situation.

Three to four feet of water was seen inundated in different inter-sections of Rawalpindi city and cantonment. Heavy downpour flooded roads in Chaklala, Lalkurti, Dheri Hasanabad, Westridge, parts of Mall and Misrial Roads.

The Met office has forecast heavy rain in Rawalpindi and Islamabad during next 24 hours. Till 5pm on Friday, the Met Office recorded 212 millimetres of rain in Rawalpindi and 150 millimetres in Islamabad. Attock received 143mm; Murree 50mm; Jhelum 108mm rainfall. Temperature in Rawalpindi was 24C while Islamabad was 28C.

The flight schedule at the Islamabad International Airport was badly affected due to heavy rainfall. Six international and 2 domestic flights were diverted to Lahore. Later, in the evening, the flight schedule became normal.

MUNAWER AZEEM FROM ISLAMABAD ADDS: 1Flood water blocked Islamabad Highway for more than four hours first time in its history, while heave downpour flooded the streets and roads.