Leh Nullah flows normally at Marir Chowk Bridge in Rawalpindi despite the downpour on Thursday. — Photo by Tanveer Shahzad
RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: Ten people drowned, of which two including an infant died and one person is missing, in flooding caused by heavy rainfall in the twin cities on Thursday.
A basement of a house in the Police Foundation, PWD, was flooded by nightlong rainfall after a wall of the house collapsed because of the accumulating water.
The basement was filled with water within limits, trapping nine people inside. One of the residents, Farhan, was not home at the time but his wife Sarish and their infant son Shahan drowned to death.
The family residing in the upper portion of the house called the rescue department, and officials were able to evacuate seven people alive and provide them immediate medical assistance.
Rainwater accumulated on the roads and in people’s homes in parts of the capital on Thursday
They included Arslan Farhan, three, Ibrahim Farham, 10, Maha Farhan, seven, Meerab Farhan, 12, Abdul Hanan Adnan, 10, Esha Adnan, 18, and Amina Rehan, eight.
Separately, a man was swept away by swift rainwater in Bahria Town Phase VII, police said, and has not yet been found.
The victim, lawyer Imran Jafar Kiani, was on the way home with Sohail Nawaz and Bilal Matloob Hussain. They had reached the Clock Tower intersection when they found the road submerged in rainwater, Mr Nawaz told police.
He said the car’s engine stopped working as water began seeping inside. They left the case and Mr Nawaz and Mr Hussain were able to catch hold of a tree, but Mr Kiani was swept away by the water.
He said Mr Kiani was swept away in a big drain that did not have a safety wall, and the search for him was also unsuccessful.
Mr Nawaz blamed the housing society’s administration for the incident and filed a complaint with the police against it.
Heavy rainfall leads to flooded roads
The rain brought lower temperatures as well as flooding to the twin cities on Thursday.
Water accumulated on several roads, particularly at Faizabad, where traffic was jammed for hours. According to the Met Office, Islamabad received 158 millimetres of rainfall at Saidpur and 123mm at Zero Point.
The rain exposed flaws in the capital’s road engineering work, as almost all of the roads in the city had accumulated water.
“Traffic was severely congested. This rainy spell exposed faulty engineering. Because of rainwater on the roads, I reached Secretariat in Islamabad from 6th Road in an hour and a half. Normally, I cover this distance in 15 minutes,” Rawalpindi resident Inam Ali told Dawn.
Another citizen, Kamran Khan, said the area between Faizabad and 6th Road was the worst-affected.