Flash floods kill nine in Thailand
BANGKOK: Flash floods have claimed at least nine lives in southern Thailand and affected half a million people, officials said on Thursday as the region braced for even more rain.
The deaths all came in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, where a state of emergency has been declared.
The youngest victim was just five years old. Scores of homes have been damaged and more than half a million people from 210,000 households are affected.
Almost 150,000 hectares of farmland is under water.
“This year is the worst we’ve seen here in 50 years,” Nakhon Si Thammarat governor Kraisorn Visitwong said.
“We’ve had floods in certain parts of our province every year, but never this volume and the currents never this strong. We can’t even use our boats.”
The main airport remained open to flights but was surrounded by water. Military vehicles were ferrying passengers to the terminal.
Six other provinces — Narathiwat, Songkhla, Patani, Surat Thani, Chumphon and Phathalung — were also experiencing flooding.
Heavy rain began a week earlier and was expected to continue over the coming days as a strong monsoon sits over the Gulf of Thailand and a low-pressure system in the Strait of Malacca.
Separately, Thai authorities filed fresh legal action on Thursday against a pro-democracy protest leader ater he criticised a court ruling that kept the prime minister in office.
The kingdom’ s constitutional court on wednesday ruled Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was not guilty of a conflict of interest by living in an army residence ater leaving the military.
The ruling angered some 5,000 protesters who took to the streets, and student leader Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak encouraged the crowd to raise their middle fingers at the judges, defying a court warning against “vulgar” criticism.
A court representative filed a contempt case against him at the Technology Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok on Thursday, citing his Facebook posts and speeches on stage. It is the latest legal challenge to the youth-led protest movement that has shaken Thailand since July calling for Prayut’s resignation, constitutional reform and changes to the once-untouchable, ultra-rich monarchy.
Five protest leaders including Penguin have been charged under the kingdom’s strict royal defamation laws, which prohibit any criticism of the king and his family.