Bhubaneswar: A sudden torrential rainfall submerged many parts of the city and kept fire service personnel on their toes throughout the day on Monday.

Around 100 fire personnel were engaged in emergency rescue and evacuation works as most parts of the city were under water.

Eight trailer-mounted fire pumps and two small pumps were pressed into action at various places of Samantarapur, Old Town, Jayadev Vihar, Chandrasekharpur, Delta Square, and Acharya Vihar.

"These are high-power pumps and can discharge 1,800 litres of water per minute. Rainwater evacuation continued till late into the evening," said Bhubaneswar deputy fire officer Ramesh Chandra Majhi.

The fire personnel also rescued around a dozen people trapped in rainwater at a building at Pragati Vihar near Chandrasekharpur.

Two were rescued near Acharya Vihar. The fire personnel also rescued several passengers, who were stuck in a bus in the waterlogged stretch in of front of the Iskcon Temple.

"The water level in some of the areas was so high that our vehicles could not enter the localities. Even our pumps got submerged at a few places while discharging rainwater," said a fire personnel.

"Three teams were deployed to remove uprooted trees from city roads," said assistant fire officer Saroj Behera.

Bhubaneswar received a rainfall of 123.5mm from 8.30am on Sunday till 8.30am on Monday, while another 32mm rain poured on the city between 8.30am and 2.30pm on Monday.

The firemen are on alert in apprehension of further rain.

"Waterlogging in the city following a downpour is nothing new. But today, the situation was completely different. Many parts of the city were under water, and we received thousands of phone calls on our toll free number 101," said another fire official.

"Our field staff had to toil hard as the rainwater flowed above knee-level in most areas. Areas in Old Town were the most affected," he said.