India, Sept. 4 -- The Yamuna's waters gushed into parts of north and east Delhi on Wednesday, flooding roads, parks, markets and cremation grounds as the river surged to its third-highest level ever, prompting thousands to leave their homes and the government to step up efforts to prevent waterlogging.

As of 11pm, the river was flowing at a height of 207.44m, nearly a metre-and-a-half above the evacuation threshold, and just short of 207.49m, the level the Yamuna reached during the calamitous floods of 1978.

The river was being fed primarily by showers upstream, over 72mm of rain in the city since Monday and the sustained release of water from the Hathnikund barrage upstream in Haryana, which has been filled to the brim for days now on ...