Delhi-NCR rain havoc: 7-year-old drowns in flooded plot, road collapses, car falls into excavation

Incessant monsoon rain battered parts of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) on Thursday, triggering massive waterlogging, traffic congestion, residential building collapses, multiple deaths and even the collapse of a road that sent a parked car and scooter plunging into a pit. An orange alert was issued for several NCR areas, including Ghaziabad, Noida, Meerut and Gurugram.

In one of the most tragic rain-related incidents, a seven-year-old boy drowned in a waterlogged vacant plot in Delhi's Samaypur Badli.

Police said the vacant plot had filled with rainwater after two days of continuous rainfall. The child reportedly entered the flooded area, wandered into a deeper section and drowned.

The family grew concerned after his younger brother returned home but Rehan did not. When he failed to return after a long time, relatives began searching for him and alerted the police.

"My son had gone out in the morning to attend nature's call. When he did not come back for a long time, we informed our relatives and started searching for him," the mother told news agency PTI.

She said the family later found Rehan's bottle on the stone boundary of the flooded plot.

"When we saw the bottle lying on the stone fence, we feared something was wrong. My brother-in-law and other family members searched the water. The plot was filled with rainwater, and my son was found inside a pit in the plot. If it were not filled with water, my son would have been alive today," the grieving mother said.

Road caves in, vehicles damaged in Ghaziabad

In another incident, a section of road in Vasundhara Sector 13 in Ghaziabad caved in beside an under-construction basement, sending a parked car and scooter into the pit. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Ajay Agrawal, whose vehicles were damaged in the incident, said they had been parked outside his residence, where he lives with his brother, Pushkar Singh, a retired superintendent engineer with the Awas Vikas Parishad.

Agrawal alleged that a builder had excavated a nearly 20-foot-deep basement without putting adequate safety measures in place. He claimed that continuous rainfall caused a section of the road to collapse into the excavation at around 8 am, dragging the parked vehicles with it.

He said the builder later arranged for a crane to retrieve the vehicles. Agrawal added that he has lodged a complaint at the Indirapuram police station, seeking action against the builder, improved safety measures at the construction site and compensation for the damage to his vehicles.

Waterlogging disrupts movement in Noida

Heavy rain also caused severe waterlogging in several parts of Noida, including Sectors 16, 33, and 12. Knee-deep water was reported in some areas, making it difficult for pedestrians and two-wheeler riders to move around.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the residential building collapse in Rohini rose to three. A building was collapsed in Delhi's Rohini on Wednesday afternoon, trapping eight people beneath the debris.

While the downpour brought widespread disruption, it also provided relief from the heat and significantly improved Delhi's air quality. The rainfall helped the national capital record its cleanest air since September 2023, with some parts of the city receiving more than 160 mm of rain.

(With inputs from news agencies)