Rescue dogs and 1 000 soldiers searched for bodies on Thursday under a sea of mud and debris in Thailand’s flood-hit north, following flash floods this week believed to have killed more than 100 people.
The public health ministry reported 51 people dead and 87 missing from the flooding that began on Monday after several days of torrential rains. Another 267 people were injured in landslides.
But Boonriang Chuchai-saengrat, chief health officer of Uttaradit province, said he feared more than 100 perished in his province alone.
The 1 000 Thai troops were dispatched early on Thursday to Uttaradit, where teams searched for bodies in the province’s hard-hit Tha Pla district, an area where more than 40 villagers were reportedly washed away by flash floods, but only two bodies have been recovered, Major Lertchai Khaithong said.
Three sniffing dogs were sent by helicopter to Tha Pla district to search for bodies believed ”buried under a sea of mud and debris”, said Lertchai, chief of the search-and-rescue centre in Uttaradit.
”We believe that a large number of dead bodies were covered by mud, so we need sniffing dogs to help,” he said.
Local and government officials have released conflicting data, with some reporting more than 300 missing. Officials have been slow to release updated figures because of communication difficulties.
About 400 search-and-rescue volunteers in helicopters and on foot have been trying to reach thousands of people stranded in their houses, on trains and in open terrain in the provinces of Nan, Phrae, Lampang, Sukhothai and Uttaradit. — Sapa-AP