Thai flood death toll rises to 35

Thai flood death toll rises to 35

THAILAND: Rescue teams struggling through mountains of mud unleashed by flooding have found 2,000 people trapped in a southern Thai village without food since a landslide cut them off from the outside world three days earlier.

The southern disaster prevention center said on Tuesday at least 35 people had been killed in floods in the nine southernmost provinces of Thailand.

Civilian volunteers have been reluctant to look for victims stranded in remote villages of the three violence-plagued southernmost provinces for fear of attacks by Muslim insurgents. The government has dispatched military rescue units in the area.

The floods, triggered by heavy rains over the past two weeks, prompted the government over the weekend to declare nine southern provinces disaster zones.

The affected area includes the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, where more than 1,100 people have died in separatist violence since January 2004.

Thousands of people in the three restive provinces are still trapped by floodwaters. -- AP