Floods, which had crippled much of central and eastern Thailand in October, began to deluge the south of the country on Monday after days of downpours, leaving at least 30 people dead in the region.

The deaths across eight southern provinces bring the total nationwide toll to 140, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said, with homes and businesses inundated and farmland damaged.

In Songkhla, 13 people were killed while thousands of soldiers were sent on Thursday to help the stranded after flash floods surged through Hat Yai, a city popular with tourists from Singapore and Malaysia. The waters later receded.

The official toll does not include the bodies of 12 Thai fishermen found floating off the coast of Pattani. Police believe their trawler capsized on Monday night in rough seas.

Tourists have been caught up in the crisis as some popular holiday spots were hit by bad weather.

On Wednesday marine police boats rescued about 100 Thai and foreign tourists from Koh Tao, an island in Surat Thani province, after they were stranded for half a day, while Koh Samui airport was briefly closed.

Fifty of Thailand's 76 provinces have been affected by the floods but the high waters have subsided in 20 of these, officials said. Bangkok has been on standby but has so far avoided major flooding.

earlier related report
Four dead, 50,000 displaced in Malaysia floods: reports
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) Nov 5, 2010 - Four people have been killed and almost 50,000 have been forced out of their homes and into relief camps as floods hit northern Malaysia, state media said Friday.

Rising waters have hit three Malaysian states on the border with Thailand, which has also been seriously affected.

An airport and a major highway have been closed, and train services and water supplies have also been disrupted by Malaysia's worst floods in five years.

The first fatalities were a 13-year-old boy and a 64-year-old German woman whose bodies were recovered in Kedah state earlier this week.

The bodies of two girls who fell into an irrigation canal in Kedah were recovered Thursday, state news agency Bernama said, and another two children who disappeared while playing in a flooded padi field were feared drowned.

Bernama said that nearly 50,000 people have now been taken to relief centres to escape the floods in Perlis, Kedah and Kelantan states.

Prime Minister Najib Razak urged flood victims and residents in the affected areas to be cautious.

"Don't treat this lightly, don't treat this as a carnival because the disaster can lead to fatalities," he said according to Bernama.

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