The death toll mounted to over 500 from floods and landslides caused by torrential rains across three countries in Southeast Asia, officials said, 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 417 dead in Indonesia, 170 in Thailand, and two deaths reported in Malaysia.
Rescue and relief officials in the Southeast Asian countries were still trying to get access to many flood-hit areas even as flood waters receded and tens of thousands 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 Sri Lanka, authorities said, with 191 others missing and more than half a million affected nationwide.
In Indonesia, relief and rescue teams used helicopters to deliver aid to people they could not access because of blocked roads on the western island of Sumatra, where three provinces had been devastated by landslides and floods after the rains.
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.
There have been reports of people looting supply lines as they grow desperate for relief in other areas, officials have said.
According to official figures, 289 people were still reported missing and 213,000 displaced.
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health reported the death toll from flooding in southern Thailand at 170, an increase of eight from yesterday, and 102 injuries. Songkhla Province had the highest number of fatalities at 131.
Hat Yai, the largest city in Songkhla, received 335mm of rain last Friday, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, amid days of heavy downpours.
In neighbouring Malaysia, there are still about 24,500 people in evacuation centres, according to the country's national disaster management agency.
Meteorological authorities have lifted tropical storm and continuous rain warnings, forecasting clear skies for most of the country.
Parts of the country were battered last week by heavy rain and wind. Malaysia's foreign ministry said it had evacuated over 6,200 Malaysian nationals stranded in Thailand.
