5 people died, more than 70,000 people evacuated in Malaysia floods

Emergency services officials said a total of five people had died.

Kuala Krai, Malaysia:

At least five people were killed and more than 70,000 rushed to evacuation centers in Malaysia after monsoon-induced flooding flooded the north of the country, authorities said on Wednesday.

More than 31,000 people have fled their homes in Kelantan state while more than 39,000 residents have been evacuated to temporary shelters in neighboring Terengganu after flooding began over the weekend, the official Bernama news agency reported. know.

Emergency services officials said a total of five people had died.

“The water level is up to almost 3 meters (10 feet),” Muhammad Ameenudin Badrul Hisyam from Kuala Krai district in Kelantan told AFP, as he cleared debris from his home after a nearby river overflowed and forced his family. you have to evacuate.

Local media reported four people died in Kelantan on Monday when three sisters were electrocuted while wading in flood water and a 15-month-old boy drowned.

The fifth victim was a two-year-old girl who was swept away by strong currents in Terengganu on Sunday.

Additional evacuations have taken place in the states of Pahang, Johor and Perak, Bernama news agency said.

Flooding is an annual phenomenon in the Southeast Asian country of 33 million people due to the northeast monsoon that brings heavy rains from November to March.

In the same month of last year, the country suffered its worst flooding in its history when more than 50 people died and thousands more were evacuated.

New Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who will visit some of the affected areas later on Wednesday, said his government would disburse additional funds for disaster management and rescue efforts.

Anwar, who is also the finance minister, told parliament on Tuesday that the government had initially allocated RM400 million ($90 million) to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Disaster officials said they would conduct aerial monitoring of flooding in the worst-affected states.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the aggregate feed.)