Thirty killed as floods plunge Lahore into chaos .
ISLAMABAD 1996-08-24
At least 30 people have been killed and about 100 injured in the flood-hit Pakistani city of Lahore , newspapers reported on Saturday .
They said 461 mm ( 18 inches ) of rain had drenched the Punjab provincial capital in 36 hours , turning streets into rivers , knocking out power , water and telephone services , disrupting air and rail traffic , and sweeping away houses and cars .
Newspapers quoted witnesses as saying they had seen bodies floating in the streets .
Among the dead were five members of the religious Jamaat-i-Islami party who drowned while trying to remove books from a basement library .
They said thousands of people had been made homeless after a breach opened in the city canal , inundating residential areas .
Army troops were called in to evacuate residents of low-lying areas to higher ground .
Officials said the Ravi and Chenab rivers , which both flow through Punjab , were in high flood and emergency services backed by troops were on full alert .