PESHAWAR, June 29: Water levels have risen in all rivers in the province following widespread rain and troops have been placed on alert to cope with any emergency, officials say.

“Army’s provincial flood relief centre has been activated and troops have been assigned for calamity-prone areas,” said an official. Nine regions have been declared sensitive, including Peshawar, Nowshera, Dera Ismail Khan and Mansehra.

In Chitral district, a glacier broke loose because of heavy rain and hit a cluster of houses in the Sanur village while hill torrents washed away several bridges and roads.

Officials said that the glacier struck four houses about 140km north of the Chitral city, but there was no casualty. The affected families were in immediate need of relief.

Flash floods triggered by heavy rains wreaked havoc in the Regi area on the outskirts of Peshawar on Thursday night. According to the NWFP Crisis Management Cell, about 100 houses had been damaged in the area, rendering a large number of people homeless.

“There has been no casualty,” an official said, adding that rains had mostly damaged mud-houses and standing crops.

Met officials said that Peshawar and adjoining areas had received 107mm of rain over the past 30 hours.

Provincial information minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai said that relief goods had been dispatched to the flood-hit Regi area and revenue department had been directed to assess damage across the province.

Four people were reported killed in Mardan and Karak districts in rain-related incidents on Friday.

Traffic on the Peshawar-Torkham Highway remained suspended and the UNHCR had to suspend repatriation of Afghan refugees.

The provincial hydrology division said on Friday that all rivers were in high flood and the flow was gradually increasing in rivers Kabul and Swat. River Kabul was in extremely high flood at Adezai Bridge in Charsadda district where the total discharge was recorded at 53,159 cusecs.

River Swat was in high flood at Munda, discharging 64,000 cusecs.

An official of the irrigation department said that Kabul and Swat rivers and their tributaries were in high and medium floods at 19 places. Various villages in Charsadda, Peshawar, Nowshera and Bannu districts have been inundated and crops damaged. In Peshawar, Kafoor Dheri, Garhi Bacha Gul, Faqirabad, Patwar Bala, Mulazai and Rehmat Babar Town were the worst-affected.

NWFP Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Aurakzai visited flood-hit areas near Peshawar and the Khyber Agency.

A handout quoted the governor as saying that government had initiated a large-scale rescue and relief operation to help the flood-hit people in the Khyber Agency and if needed, help would be sought from the army.

Rain continued to lash Mansehra, Battagram and Kohistan and Balakot for second consecutive day on Friday, paralysing civic life. Various roads were blocked because of landslides and high-level flood in rivers Kunhar and Siren.

Traffic between Mansehra and Kaghan Valley remained suspended for second day because of landslides near Lambi Dari.

In Lakki Marwat district, River Gambila was in high flood with a discharge level of 55,000 cusecs. The district authorities shifted prisoners to Bannu district because of rising river level.