BANGKOK: The death toll from Typhoon Kajiki in northern Thailand has increased to five people with fifteen others injured due to landslides and flooding.
Officials confirmed the updated casualty figures on Thursday as heavy rainfall is expected to continue throughout the week.
The storm initially made landfall in Vietnam on Monday, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate before moving across Laos and into northern Thailand.
Five people were killed and fifteen injured across twelve provinces in northern Thailand according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Provinces including Nan, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son were hit particularly hard with flash floods destroying bridges and cutting off communities.
Since Sunday, at least seven people were reported missing with more than 1,800 households and 6,300 people affected by the typhoon.
“The water level is likely to increase in some areas,“ the disaster agency said in a Facebook post.
On Wednesday, two people were killed in landslides in the popular northern tourist destination of Chiang Mai.
The kingdom’s meteorological department forecast continuous rain through next week across the north, northeast and central regions.
Thailand regularly experiences heavy rainfall from June to September but experts say human-induced climate change has intensified extreme weather.
Widespread flooding across Thailand in 2011 killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes around the country. – AFP