India, Oct. 15 -- Heavy rain lashed parts of Delhi and NCR, including Uttar Pradesh's Noida, Ghaziabad and Haryana's Gurugram, on Thursday afternoon, prompting the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue elevate the orange alert to red for several areas.

All districts of Delhi were initially placed under an orange alert for rain and thunderstorms till at least 3 pm but were later on red warning, according to the nowcast seen on IMD website at around 1:30 pm on Thursday.

Gurugram, Faridabad in Haryana and UP's Noida, Ghaziabad were under an orange-coloured warning.

According to the IMD, moderate to intense rainfall at a rate of 5-15 mm per hour, accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning and gusty winds reaching 40-60 kmph, was like...