Thailand hit by "natural calamity"

Thailand's prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has called the flooding the heavy flooding that has displaced thousands of people in the south of the country "one of the worst natural calamities" his nation had ever experienced.

Heavy rains began on 31st October and intensified over 1st November, triggering major flooding after dams and reservoirs overflowed and rivers burst their banks, a disaster exacerbated, according to the prime minister, by aggressive housing and business development that has destroyed natural drainage channels.

The hardest-hit city was Hat Yai, in Songkhla Province in the far south of the country, where waters rose to 1.5m, affecting more than 100,000 people.

The disaster follows flooding in the northern part of the country in October.