Floods and landslides in southern Myanmar have killed at least eight people, with up to 30 still missing, a local rescue worker said on Monday. Myanmar's southernmost Tanintharyi region has been hit by heavy rain since Friday night, as part of an intense weather system that also flooded neighbouring Thailand, including Bangkok, over the weekend. "We have recovered eight bodies while between 20 to 30 people are missing" in Launglon township, said Hein Htet of the local volunteer group People's Administration Team. He said three of the bodies recovered were teenagers who had gathered at a local monastery on Sunday and were swept away by a landslide that hit their village and buried 18 buildings. Hein Htet warned that people and villages remain in the danger zone as the rain continues.

He also described the strain on rescuers, saying they are overwhelmed not only by the scale of the flooding but also by a lack of resources, and called the event a natural disaster in a conflict area. Authorities have not released an official toll. Another volunteer leader, Myo Min of the Dawei Zabuthiri Emergency Medical Service, told AFP that several townships in Tanintharyi were badly affected by flooding and landslides, and that there were no confirmed casualty figures. His preliminary information pointed to between seven and 10 deaths and 20 to 30 people missing. He said some villages could be reached only on foot, and that aid teams had found hundreds of residents displaced from their homes and sheltering in monasteries. Rescue workers had not yet been able to reach the whole disaster area, he added. Figures differ between sources.

The independent outlet Democratic Voice of Burma reported that at least five residents had died between September 24 and 27, citing local rescue groups, and that a resistance group had said at least 20 homes were destroyed by landslides across 40 villages around Dawei, the regional capital, with telecommunications down. The outlet also reported that nearly 400 displaced residents were staying at a shelter in Launglon township, which lies about 19km south of Dawei. Regime-run media reported that 8,431 Launglon residents were rescued from four urban wards. Flooding was also reported in Palaw and Thayetchaung townships, where no casualties had been reported.

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The conflict makes the scale of natural disasters hard to judge in Myanmar, where a civil war has complicated aid efforts since the military took power in 2021. Access to some areas is limited, telecommunications are unreliable, and volunteer groups often do the work of assessing damage and rescuing survivors. Humanitarian organisations often struggle to establish reliable casualty figures, so early counts can change as communications and roads are restored. The latest flooding is also the third major flood to hit Tanintharyi in about a month, according to DVB. On August 27, more than 2,000 residents of Tanintharyi township were forced to evacuate after the Tanintharyi River rose above its danger level.

Earlier flooding in other parts of the country, including Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay and Ayeyarwady regions and Karen State, killed at least 32 people and affected about 610,000 people, according to a report issued on August 22 by the opposition National Unity Government. Across the border, the Thai capital declared a flood disaster over the weekend after almost 48 hours of heavy rain left homes, shops and roads waterlogged. According to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, nearly 4,900 people were evacuated to shelters and around 52,000 households were affected. Local aid reports say the priorities in Tanintharyi are search and rescue, medical care and restoring access to cut-off villages, with a risk of waterborne disease where sanitation has been overwhelmed. With rain continuing and many villages still cut off, rescuers say the toll could still rise.

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