Police have taken 30 people into custody in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur for allegedly molesting women and girls while rescuing them from the flood-hit areas of the district.

“We have registered a case at Chawk Kotwali police station against unidentified persons and taken 30 men into custody for interrogation,” said Ashok Kumar Meena, superintendent of police of Shahjahanpur, around 175km north of Lucknow.

Police sources said the women alleged that some men molested them after offering to help them flee the flood-hit villages around Maujampur.

“They had boats and floating tubes and we realised their intention a little late,” a woman was quoted as saying to the reporters.

Rohit Kumar, Azizganj police outpost in-charge, said: “The manhunt is under way. We have registered the case against unidentified persons and rounded up 30 suspects. We are interrogating them in Ram Chandra Mission police station and hope to reach a conclusion soon.”

Chandra Prakash Shukla, the in-charge of Ram Chandra Mission police station, said: “We are trying to find out the criminal antecedents of the detained persons.”

Shiv Shankar, a resident of Kanshi Ram colony in the city, has informed the police about some robbers who are active in the area. Shankar’s residential area has been completely flooded.

“I had sent away my family members to Hanuman Dham where my nephew Shiv Om lives. I was walking alone through a flooded road in the evening when some people stopped me and snatched my belongings, including the mobile phone,” he said.

Sanjay Kumar, superintendent of police of Shahjahanpur city, said: “We have filed a case against unidentified robbers and trying to trace them.”

More than 700 villages in Uttar Pradesh have been affected by floods as rivers continue to be in spate.