Thai floods kill 170 people

Thai floods kill 170 people

BANGKOK (Reuters): Monsoon floods in northern Thailand over the last three weeks have killed 170 people, displaced 6,661 villagers, and devastated thousands of houses and roads, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry said in a statement flooding brought by tropical storm Usagi had wreaked havoc on 35 provinces since Aug. 10. The hardest-hit area was the province of Phetchabun where 126 people drowned or were swept away by mud slides.

The authorities estimated the flooding caused 1.15 billion baht (US$26 million) worth of damage, and affected about 200,000 hectares of farmland in the central and northern regions.

The ministry said other badly hit provinces were northeast Udon Thani and northern Chiang Mai where 13 and eight people were killed respectively.

In Phnom Penh, five Cambodian children drowned when a boat they were rowing through flood waters capsized, bringing the flood death toll to 22 with some 400,000 people left homeless, officials said on Monday.