Morgue in Thailand’s Songkhla exceeds capacity after flooding
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Relatives carry relief supplies as they visit their family members trapped at a house after flooding in Hat Yai.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Bangkok - The main facility receiving bodies of flood victims in southern Thailand has filled up, prompting the authorities to bring in three refrigerated trucks, a hospital staffer said on Nov 28.
“The morgue has exceeded its capacity, so we need more,” Mr Charn, a morgue official at Songkhla Hospital who gave only his first name, told AFP after the death toll rose to 55.
Footage filmed by an AFP journalist showed white refrigerated lorries parked outside the hospital’s main building.
Devastating flooding has overwhelmed southern Thailand this week, particularly in Hat Yai, near the border with Malaysia, where large areas were submerged, pushing residents to seek shelter on rooftops.
The Thai government said in a statement late on Nov 27 that the death toll from several days of flooding in Songkhla province had jumped to 55, up from six the previous day.
Residents on Nov 27 described floodwaters rising rapidly.
“The water rose to the ceiling of the second floor,” Ms Kamban Wongpanya, 67, told AFP, explaining that she had to be rescued by boat.
Shopowner Chayaphol Promkleng thought at first that his business would be spared because flooding was “only ankle-deep”.
He returned the following day to find his shop “flooded to waist-deep level”.
“There was nothing I could do. I left the shop to save my life.”
The government said Nov 28 it had suspended the Hat Yai district chief over an alleged failure to respond to the flooding. AFP
