ASIA/THAILAND - Alert for floods continues: risk of diseases and attacks from the reptiles escaped from farms

Bangkok (Agenzia Fides) - The state of alert caused by the severe floods that are hitting Thailand since the month of July continues. This is the worst recorded in the last 50 years and have so far caused 562 deaths in 22 affected provinces, 5 million people have been affected. Hundreds of thousands of villagers have been forced to flee to makeshift shelters in the south of the country. In the region of Bangkok shops are closed, food supplies are not found. Most people are forced to flee the city. Besides the risk of contracting diseases caused by contaminated water, the inhabitants of the affected areas are at risk for attacks of snakes and crocodiles which have escaped in recent weeks from several commercial farms in the capital. The intensity of this weather phenomena is due to three tropical storms that have hit the country relentlessly, in addition to the abundant monsoon rains. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 14/11/2011)