Flood woes continue: the number of people evacuated is about 220 thousand in Malaysia

Baku. 29 December. REPORT.AZ/ Severe flooding in Malaysia and Thailand has killed at least 24 people and forced the evacuation of more than 200,000, Report informs citing foreign mass media.

Northeastern Malaysia and southern Thailand are regularly hit by flooding during the annual northeast monsoon, but this year the rain has been particularly heavy. Scientists have predicted that as climate change worsens, storm patterns will become less predictable and more severe.

The worst flooding in Malaysia in more than a decade has killed 10 people, authorities said Sunday. Five of those casualties were in the worst-hit state of Kelantan, in the northeastern part of the Malaysian peninsula. Across the border in southern Thailand, 14 people have been killed in the floods that began in mid-December.

There are fears that the death toll could increase as communities have been left stranded without food or medicine.

"There was a lot of noise outside my home. I could also hear people giving instructions to move to the school," Nazri Mohd Nor, a factory worker in Perak State in northwestern Malaysia "I was shocked to see the water level had reached my knees as I got out of bed."