Over 4m people affected

The death toll mounted to over 600 from floods and landslides caused by torrential rains across three countries in Southeast Asia, officials said yesterday, as relief efforts for tens of thousands of displaced people continued over the weekend.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand faced large-scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait fuelling heavy rains and wind gusts for a week. There were 435 dead in Indonesia, 170 in Thailand, and three deaths reported in Malaysia.

Rescue and relief officials in the Southeast Asian countries were still trying to get access to many flood-hit areas yesterday even as flood waters receded and tens of thousands of people were evacuated across the three countries. Over 4 million people have been affected - nearly 3 million in southern Thailand and 1.1 million in western Indonesia, according to official statistics.

Separately, across the Bay of Bengal, another 153 people were killed by a cyclone in the island nation of Sri Lanka, authorities said, with 191 others missing and more than half a million affected nationwide.

The death toll surged in Indonesia to 435 yesterday, up from 303 on Saturday, official data uploaded on a government website showed, as officials compiled reports of casualties and damage pouring in from the western island of Sumatra, where three provinces had been devastated by landslides and floods after the rains.

Many areas were cut off due to blocked roads, while damage to telecommunications infrastructure has hampered communication. Relief and rescue teams used helicopters to deliver aid to people in areas that could not be reached by road.

From a navy chopper flying over the isolated town of Palembayan in West Sumatra, a Reuters photographer saw large tracts of land and homes swept away by floodwaters. As the helicopter landed in a soccer field, dozens of people were already standing close by waiting for food.