Malaysian floods kill 5, thousands homeless

KUALA LUMPUR - Flooding in Malaysia killed five people and left thousands homeless as the heaviest monsoon in years drenched the country's northeast on Sunday.

Rivers burst their banks after weeks of heavy rain across three states, inundating towns and villages and forcing rescue teams to rush almost 5000 people to evacuation centres, local media reports said.

The dead included a three-year-old boy who drowned in a drain on Saturday and a 30-year-old man electrocuted on Sunday after his boat capsized and he grabbed an electrical cable lying across a swollen river, state news agency Bernama reported.

The floods caused havoc, closing roads and disrupting train services. Many government offices in Kelantan state were knee-deep in water, the New Straits Times said on its website.

The weekend's deaths also included a 30-year-old man who drowned when his boat capsized, a mentally ill man swept away while playing in flood waters and a labourer who drowned after falling into a river near his construction site, Bernama said.

- REUTERS