New Delhi:The southwest monsoon covered the entire country on Thursday, a day later than its normal date, after advancing into the remaining parts of the north Arabian Sea, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, IMD officials said.

Under the influence of the monsoon, torrential rains unleashed widespread destruction across several parts of the country, inundating roads, uprooting trees and disrupting normal life.

Roads and residential areas remained submerged in several cities, with commuters wading through knee-deep water and traffic crawling on major roads and highways. Trees uprooted by strong winds blocked roads at several places, while flooding disrupted vehicular movement and damaged houses.

Rescue operations also continued at the site of a building that collapsed a day earlier at a waste-to-energy plant in Maharashtra’s Pimpri Chinchwad near Pune after a massive mound of garbage gave way due to heavy rain. One body was recovered on Thursday, while around eight people are still feared trapped under the debris. Nine people have been rescued so far.

Delhi witnessed one of its heaviest spells of rain this season, with widespread waterlogging, uprooted trees and traffic snarls throwing life out of gear. The India Meteorological Department issued a ‘red’ alert for the day as the Safdarjung, the capital’s base weather station, recorded 72.6 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours that ended at 8.30 am, and Tukhmirpur in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri received the highest rainfall at 160 mm during this period. Hours of incessant rain spelled chaos on roads, uprooting trees and leaving several areas waterlogged. In Rajasthan, widespread rainfall soaked parts of the state, with the Met department forecasting extremely heavy rainfall in isolated areas of Kota and Bharatpur divisions on Thursday.