At least five people have lost their lives and more than 70,000 have been forced to evacuate after monsoon floods swept through the north of the country, Malaysian authorities said on Wednesday.
More than 31,000 residents of Kelantan state have fled their homes while another 39,000 from neighboring Terengganu state have been directed to temporary shelters due to floods which started over the weekend, the official said. national agency Bernama.
Rescue officials reported five dead.
“The water level has reached almost three meters,” Muhammad Ameenudin Badrul Hisyam, a resident of Kuala Krai district in Kelantan state, told AFP, forced to abandon his flooded house.
Local media reported that three sisters died from electrocution as they were caught in the waters, and a 15-month-old child drowned.
The fifth victim is believed to be a two-year-old girl who was swept away by the current in Terengganu state on Saturday.
Other evacuations took place in the states of Pahang, Johor and Perak, in the southern half and northwest of Malaysia, the Bernama agency reported.
Floods are frequent in this South Asian country of 33 million inhabitants where the monsoon season brings torrential rains from November to March.
Last year in December, Malaysia was hit by the worst floods in its history. More than fifty people were killed in this disaster, and thousands more displaced.
New Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was due to visit some affected areas on Wednesday, said his government would release funds to fund relief and disaster management.
Also finance minister, he announced in parliament on Tuesday that the government had initially allocated 400 million ringgit (about 85 million euros) to the National Disaster Management Agency.
Representatives of the latter explained that they would carry out aerial reconnaissance in the regions most affected by the floods.