Valsad (Gujarat) [India], August 21(ANI): A man was rescued while four others, including his wife and child, went missing after the car they were travelling in was swept away in Desai Creek in Gujarat's Valsad district on Wednesday, officials said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), along with local residents, launched an operation to trace the missing.

According to officials, the car's driver was saved, but his wife and child, along with two others, could not be located.

'After the rain, about four feet of water was flowing over the road. An i10 car got stuck there. The locals saved the driver, but despite trying, they could not save his child and wife. For that reason, the NDRF team was called to Valsad. A team of 20 people came. They searched for two and a half hours, but they could not find the car... They will continue the search operation tomorrow at 6 am,' Tehsildar of Pardi Tehsil, Kiran Rana, told ANI.

Praveen Bhai, a local who helped pull out the driver, said, 'At 7.30 pm, we got a message that a man's car was sinking in the water here. We came here immediately. We searched here but couldn't find anyone. Then we heard the man's voice calling out to us. We rescued him...'

Parts of Gujarat have been battered by heavy rain over the past few days.

According to the IMD, heavy to very heavy rainfall has been reported in several places, with isolated instances of extremely to exceptionally heavy rainfall (>=30 cm) occurring in Saurashtra and Kutch, as well as the south Gujarat region yesterday.

Today, the focus remains on Saurashtra, where significant rainfall is expected to continue.

Additionally, from August 20 to 25, heavy rainfall is anticipated over parts of the central Arabian Sea and adjacent areas, including portions of the south Arabian Sea and northeast Arabian Sea, along with the coasts of Gujarat, Konkan, and Goa. (ANI)