Police said rising waters had forced the closure of a major highway linking the northern part of the country and an airport in Kedah state was closed for a second straight day due to a flooded runway.

Train services and water supplies have also been disrupted by the worst floods in five years.

Police in Kedah state said a 13-year-old boy drowned Tuesday while fishing in a paddy field, while 64-year-old German Erna Fisher was missing after falling into floodwaters Monday, the Star newspaper reported.

Fisher was living in Kedah state with her son and his Malaysian wife.

Kedah public order chief Mah Khye Beng said some 22,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in the state.

"Even though it is not raining, there is a lot of water rushing down from upstream forcing rivers to spill over and flooding low lying areas," he told AFP.

Mah said water supplies to some areas were disrupted and some roads had been submerged.

Perlis and Kelantan states were also affected by the floods.

Perlis chief minister Mohamad Isa Sabu described the floods as "really bad" and said they had caused worse devastation than the big flood of 2005.

About 6,052 have been evacuated in Perlis, which borders southern Thailand which has also been hit by floods, the official Bernama news agency said.

Housewife Rindu Rahayu Abdul Rahman said she was terrified to see floodwaters rushing through her house in the state capital Kangar.

"It was like seeing the sea in front of my house. We did not manage to save any belongings except for the television and some small appliances," she was quoted as saying by the Star.

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