New Delhi: Three children drowned in the floodwaters in northeast Delhi on Friday afternoon as a swollen Yamuna continued to spill into the city’s roads.
The police said the children, between 12 and 15, dived into the floodwater collected in a filed in northeast Delhi’s Mukundpur area for a bath around 3 pm, and went under.
A police constable dove after them but could only recover unresponsive bodies.
Meanwhile, the Yamuna waters receded marginally Friday after breaching a 45-year record.
Apart from heavy rains in Delhi, which stopped a few days ago, the Yamuna continued to flow above the danger mark due to the water released from the Hathnikund barrage in upstream Haryana.
The release was necessitated by continuous torrential rains in Himachal Pradesh, the worst-affected state this monsoon.
According to Central Water Commission (CWC) data, the water level stood at 208.57 metres on Friday and fell marginally to 208.48 metres.
Floodwaters lapped at the entrance of the Supreme Court in central Delhi Friday and submerged the busy ITO intersection and Rajghat as the Irrigation and Flood Control Department’s regulator was damaged.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Revenue Minister Atishi directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to seek help from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Army to prevent the entry of floodwaters to new areas in the national capital.