Two more children die in Malaysian floods
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-25 10:22

Two more children died in Malaysian villages inundated by heavy monsoon rains, raising the death toll in this season's flooding to five, while about 1,200 people were evacuated from their homes, police said Friday.

The annual northeastern monsoon season began weeks earlier this time, resulting in heavy rains since late October in the northeastern states of Terengganu and Kelantan, where all the casualties and displacement of people have occurred. Pahang in central Malaysia also has been hit.

In Terengganu, 965 people were told to leave their homes and put up in public schools and community halls on higher ground, state police flood operations room officer Yahya Salleh told The Associated Press.

On Thursday, an eight-year-old boy drowned when he fell into a river and a 14-year-old boy died while swimming in another river, both in Terengganu, he said.

In Kelantan, authorities closed six main roads as eight rivers overflowed, state police flood operations spokesman Rano Othman said.

He added, however, that the water was not considered to have exceeded "dangerous" levels and 196 people were advised to move out of their homes and taken into relief centers "to be on the safe side".

In the state of Pahang, people had begun to return to their homes as floods receded and only one district remained affected. The number of people still in flood relief centers dropped by about 50 to 110, police officer Mohamad Fahruz Ali said.

Two children died in Kelantan and one in Terengganu on Wednesday. No deaths have been reported in Pahang.

The three states suffer floods almost every year during the monsoon season between November and March.