By IANS,
Chandigarh : Heavy rainfall over the last two days has led to inundation in several districts of Punjab as at least five people died in the 24 hours to Wednesday evening.
Three deaths were reported by district authorities in Amritsar, one from Tarn Taran and one from Hoshiarpur.
Heavy rainfall in these districts and other parts of Punjab inundated residential areas. In Hoshiarpur district, parts of Tanda town were under three to five feet of water.
Normal life was affected in most towns and cities in the state. Amritsar city received 205 mm of rainfall Wednesday.
In Amritsar, a woman, Raj Rani, and a child were killed when a building collapsed in Ekta Nagar locality following heavy rainfall. A man was killed in Bharat Nagar locality in a house collapse. Balwinder Singh died in a village in neighbouring Tarn Taran district after his house collapsed.
Water logging occurred at most places in Punjab including outside the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, several areas of the industrial city of Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur besides other places.
Major rivers like the Beas and Ravi were in spate while gushing waters in seasonal rivulets played havoc in areas of Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur districts.
Gurdaspur deputy commissioner G.K. Singh said a red alert had been sounded in the affected areas but there was no immediate threat of flooding after respite from the continuous rainfall Wednesday evening.
Water spilled over from check dams over rivulets in Hoshiarpur district, leading to water logging.
Major dams like the Bhakra Dam on the Sutlej, the Pong Dam on the Beas and the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Dam on the Ravi were full to their respective storage capacity.