Floods kill at least eight in Thailand, up to 10 feared dead in Myanmar

Rescuers in Myanmar were battling on Monday to reach flood-hit areas where up to 10 people are feared dead and dozens missing, as neighbouring Thailand grapples with widespread flooding that has affected more than 1.7 million people and killed eight since mid-September.Myanmar's southernmost Tanintharyi region has been hit by heavy rains since Friday night, part of an intense weather system also hitting neighbouring Thailand and flooding Bangkok over the weekend.Myo Min, chairman of the volunteer Dawei Zabuthiri Emergency Medical Service, toldAFPseveral townships in Tanintharyi were badly affected by flooding and landslides.Some villages had become only accessible by foot, and aid teams have found hundreds of residents displaced from their homes to monastery shelters, he said.There are "no confirmed figures" of casualties yet, but preliminary information suggests a death toll between seven and 10 people, with 20 to 30 missing, he added."Rescue workers have not yet been able to fully manage the entire disaster area," he said.Authorities have not yet released any official toll in a country whose civil war complicates aid efforts.The conflict often makes even the scale of natural disasters hard for humanitarian organisations to judge.Myanmar, a nation of 51 million people, ranks among the 10 nations most vulnerable to climate crisis, according to non-profit Germanwatch.In Thailand, the capital Bangkok declared a flood disaster over the weekend after almost 48 hours of heavy rain left homes, shops and roads waterlogged.Nearly 4,900 people were evacuated to shelters, with around 52,000 households affected, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.Eight dead in Thailand floods since mid-SeptemberEight people have died in flooding in Thailand since September 16, although none in the capital, Bangkok, which declared a disaster this weekend following heavy rains, the government said on Monday.The eight died in eastern provinces, five in Sa Kaeo, two in Chanthaburi and one in Saraburi, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM), which did not give further details.Not including Bangkok, more than 500,000 households and 1.7 million people across 27 provinces in the Southeast Asian country have been affected by flooding, the DDPM said.A further 52,000 households were impacted in the capital, which on Saturday declared a city-wide disaster after almost 48 hours of heavy rain swelled canals and flooded roads.

Thousands sheltered on Monday in evacuation centres in the Thai capital, parts of it still flooded.No deaths have been officially reported in Bangkok, and the DDPM said water levels had stabilised.Entire neighbourhoods were inundated and the drainage network swamped after 320 mm (12.6 inches) of rain fell during two or three days last week, or nearly as much as the sprawling low-lying city usually gets in all of September.Schools have been closed and people urged to work from home, a call that many heeded, with streets and public transport networks noticeably quieter on Monday morning."Some areas in Bangkok are still facing high water levels," government spokesman Ekkapob Pianpises told a news briefing.Drainage systems had reduced water levels to the point that more people could travel, he added.Thailand is used to wet weather and September is the peak of the rainy season, but many residents said this year seemed worse than previous ones.The floods could cause economic damage of at least 11 billion baht ($327 million) nationwide, with the losses likely to rise unless the situation improves, said Aat Pisanwanich of Rangsit University's economics department.Bangkok and the eastern region are likely to take the brunt of the impact, particularly wholesale and retail businesses, while industry and agriculture will suffer elsewhere, Aat added.Last year's catastrophic southern floods, triggered by 630 mm (25 inches) of rain over three days, killed at least 145, inundated more than 33,000 homes and damaged critical facilities such as schools, hospitals and highways.