Floods displace 122,000 people in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 122,000 people have been forced out of their homes as massive floods caused by relentless rains swept through Malaysia’s northern states, disaster officials said Saturday.

The number surpassed the 118,000 displaced during one of the country’s worst floodings in 2014, and disaster officials feared it could rise further as there was no let-up in torrential downpours.

The death toll remained at four recorded across Kelantan, Terengganu and Sarawak.

Kelantan state bore the brunt of the flooding, accounting for 63 percent of the 122,631 people displaced, according to data from the National Disaster Management Agency.

There were nearly 35,000 people evacuated in Terengganu, with the rest of the displacements reported from seven other states.

Heavy rains, which began early this week, continued to hammer Pasir Puteh town in Kelantan, where people could be seen walking through streets inundated with hip-deep waters.

Floods are an annual phenomenon in the Southeast Asian nation of 34 million people due to the northeast monsoon that brings heavy rain from November to March.

Thousands of emergency services personnel have been deployed in flood-prone states along with rescue boats, four-wheel-drive vehicles and helicopters, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who chairs the National Disaster Management Committee.