Karnal, Sept. 2 -- The water level in the Hathnikund barrage rose to over 3.50 lakh cusec, the highest this monsoon, on Monday amid heavy rainfall in the catchment areas, prompting "high flood" alerts for Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi, even as incessant rain battered Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

The gates were opened during the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. Irrigation and water resources department (Yamunanagar) superintendent engineer RS Mittal said that the level touched 3.50 lakh cusecs at 10 am. He said that at 4 am, the water flow was recorded at 1.65 lakh cusecs.

The 70,000 cusecs to 1.5 lakh cusecs is considered "low flood", 1.5 lakh cusecs to 2.5 lakh cusecs is "medium flood", and above 2.5 lakh cusecs is "high flo...