KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Two families in Medan Damansara here were evacuated when the retaining wall near a hill on which a controversial condominium project is being built collapsed during heavy rain yesterday.

The occupants of the two houses at Lorong Setiapuspa 1 were advised to move out temporarily.

Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk M. Saravanan, Fire and Rescue Department and DBKL personnel visited the site.

The heavy downpour which began at about 5pm caused flash floods in parts of the city, Petaling Jaya and Kajang.

Jalan Travers, Pudu Raya and Jalan Bangsar were the affected areas here.

The Smart Tunnel was closed from 7pm onwards to divert floodwaters.

The flood hit several areas here that are under strong objections from the residents for hillside development approved by the City Hall.

The worst hit area, Jalan Travers, is next to Federal Hill where three blocks of high-rise buildings were earlier proposed but was strongly opposed by residents.

DBKL's Drainage and Irrigation Department director Hooi Yoke Meng said the water retention pond built behind a petrol station had helped alleviate the flood situation at Jalan Travers.

He said the pond was a temporary mitigation measure carried out by the City Hall after the area was flooded in April. Water run-off from Federal Hill had been diverted into the pond.

He pointed out that one of the long-term measures was to have another water retention pond there to stop rainwater from flowing into Jalan Travers.

He disagreed that constructions carried out on Federal Hill had contributed to the flash flood.

"All developments must abide by our policies under the New Urban Storm Water Management whereby developers should have structures on their sites to trap water, and thus should have zero contribution towards flash floods. City Hall enforces and monitors this," he added.

In Petaling Jaya, traffic at Jalan Universiti heading towards the Federal Highway was at a crawl since 6pm because of flash floods at the flyover.

At about 8.30pm, the situation worsened at the junction of Jalan Universiti and Jalan Dato Abu Bakar (Jalan 16/1).

An MBPJ Hotline officer confirmed that there were also reports of flash floods at Persiaran Surian, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, but the water subsided at about 9pm.

Over in Kajang, Jalan Reko was also badly affected and resident K. Amarakaran, 55, said it was the worst he had ever seen.