FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Hundreds dead and missing in Southeast Asia, where the region has been hit by some of the heaviest rains in decades.
The rains, exacerbated by tropical storms, have caused some of the worst flooding in years, with millions affected in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
The death toll on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has passed 300 and is feared to rise further with dozens more still missing.
Evacuation efforts are still underway there, with major roads cut off and internet and electricity only partially restored.
As of Saturday, 160 deaths had been reported in Thailand. Several deaths were also reported in Malaysia.
An extremely rare tropical cyclone, called Cyclone Senyar, caused catastrophic landslides and flooding in Indonesia, with homes swept away and thousands of buildings submerged.
"The current was very fast, within a few seconds it reached the road, entered the house," Arini Amalia, a resident of Indonesia's Aceh Province, told the BBC.
She and her grandmother ran to a relative's house on higher ground. When she returned the next day to get some belongings, she said the flood had completely engulfed the house: "It's already sunk."
After waters rose rapidly in West Sumatra and flooded his home, Meri Osman said he was "swept away" and clung to a clothesline until he was rescued.
"During the flood, everything disappeared," a resident of Bireuen in Sumatra's Aceh province told Reuters news agency. "I wanted to save my clothes, but my house collapsed."
Bad weather has hampered rescue operations and, while tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, hundreds more are still trapped, Indonesia's disaster agency said.
In Tapanuli, the worst-affected area, reports say residents have looted grocery stores in search of food.
In Indonesia, hundreds of people are still missing after torrential rains caused chaos on the island of Sumatra.
In Thailand's southern Songkhla province, water levels rose 3 meters and at least 145 people lost their lives in one of the worst floods in the last decade.
In the 10 provinces hit by the floods, more than 160 people have died, the government said on Saturday. More than 3.8 million people have been affected.
The city of Hat Yai experienced 335mm of rain in a single day, the heaviest in 300 years. As the waters receded, officials recorded a sharp rise in the death toll.
At a hospital in Hat Yai, workers were forced to move bodies into refrigerated trucks after the morgue became overloaded, AFP news agency reported.
"We were stranded in the water for seven days and no agency came to help," Hat Yai resident Thanita Khiawhom told BBC Thai.
The government has promised relief measures, including compensation of up to two million baht ($62,000) for families who lost family members.
In neighboring Malaysia, the death toll is much lower, but the damage is just as devastating.
The floods have caused chaos and left parts of the northern state of Perlis underwater, with two people dead and tens of thousands forced to take shelter.
Elsewhere in Asia, Sri Lanka has been hit by Cyclone Ditwah, with more than 130 dead and about 170 missing, officials said.
Sri Lanka is also facing one of the worst weather disasters in recent years, and the government has declared a state of emergency.
More than 15,000 homes have been destroyed and about 78,000 people have been forced to stay in temporary shelters, officials said. They added that about a third of the country is without electricity or running water.
Meteorologists have said the extreme weather in Southeast Asia may have been caused by the interaction of Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and the rare formation of Cyclone Senyar in the Strait of Malacca.
Climate change has altered storm patterns, including the intensity and duration of the season, resulting in heavier rainfall, flash flooding, and stronger winds.
Lini një Përgjigje