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Published : 29 Nov 2025, 05:42 PM
More than 350 people have died in Indonesia and Thailand after days of pounding monsoon rain unleashed deadly floods and landslides, paralysing towns, uprooting families and overwhelming rescue crews, The Guardian reports.
Emergency teams reported entire stretches of Sumatra still unreachable on Saturday, while Thailand battled its worst flooding in a decade.
Torrential downpours submerged towns, triggered landslides and left thousands stranded on rooftops across the countries.
In Indonesia, rescuers were battling to reach cut-off communities in Sumatra, where more than 100 people remained missing amid washed-out roads and dangerous terrain, the report added.
More than 200 people have died in Indonesia alone, according to disaster officials.
“As of tonight, 61 fatalities have been recorded, and 90 are still being searched for,” Ilham Wahab, spokesperson for West Sumatra’s regional disaster mitigation agency, was quoted as saying late on Friday.
He cited an earlier provincial toll of 23. In North Sumatra, 116 deaths have been confirmed, while at least 35 people have died in Aceh province.
Suharyanto, head of the national disaster agency, said cloud-seeding operations would begin in West Sumatra to curb further rainfall, much of which had eased by Saturday.
Thailand has suffered one of its worst floods in a decade. Water levels in Songkhla province reached three metres, killing at least 145 people. The nationwide toll has risen to 162, The Guardian quoted officials.
In Hat Yai, hospital staff moved bodies into refrigerated trucks after the morgue reached capacity.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited evacuees on Friday.
“I really have to apologise to them for letting this happen during the time I am in government,” he was quoted as saying during a broadcast on AmarinTV.
“The next step is to prevent the situation from deteriorating.” He set a two-week deadline for the district’s restoration.
Bangkok has announced relief measures, including compensation of up to 2 million baht ($62,000) for families who lost loved ones. Public criticism has mounted, and two local officials have been suspended for alleged failures in the flood response.
In Malaysia, flooding caused by intense rain killed two people in northern Perlis state.
The region’s annual monsoon -- intensified this year by a tropical storm -- has delivered some of the deadliest flooding in recent years, with climate change driving more severe rainfall and flash-flood events.
