Thai flash floods,mudslides kill 34;dozens missing

UTTARADIT, Thailand, May 23 (Reuters) Heavy monsoon rains unleashed flash floods and mudslides in northern Thailand which killed at least 34 people, left dozens missing and thousands homeless, officials said today.

Unusually heavy rain at the start of the monsoon lashed deforested hills, causing flash floods -- some of them three metres deep -- which swept into cities and towns in four provinces, they said.

The region is not a key farming area for Thailand, the world's biggest exporter of rice, tapioca and rubber, but Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will fly to inspect the areas tomorrow, a day after he formally took back the reins of power.

Uttaradit, 500 km north of Bangkok, was the worst hit province where 30 bodies were already found and the toll could rise beyond 100 as many bodies were believed to be buried under the mud or washed away by the waters, officials said.

''From what we've seen at the affected sites, we believe the toll will rise to a hundred as many might have still been buried under the mud,'' said Eadyoungone Yongyuan, a deputy chief provincial doctor of Uttaradit told Reuters by telephone.

Most of the deaths were believed to have occurred in the Laplae district of Uttaradit province, where 330 mm (13 inches) of rain fell in the 24 hours to 0000 GMT today, causing mudslides, officials said.

Hundreds of students, including 20 from China, could not leave their college where the water was three metres (yards) deep as rescue workers rowed boats to pass them food and look for sick people to take to hospital.

''Nobody ever thought Uttaradit would be severely hit by flash floods like these,'' Uttaradit chief medical doctor Boonreang Chuchaisaengrat told Channel 9 television.

Earlier today, 700 inmates from Uttaradit central prison were transferred to other prisons in nearby provinces as water was about to flood their cells, state Radio Thailand reported.

All rail traffic between Bangkok and the north was cancelled after four trains, carrying about 1,000 passengers, were stranded in Uttaradit.

Some passengers climbed onto carriage roofs in fear of rising waters, state rail spokeswoman Monthakarn Srivilasa said.

The rains, which meteorologists called ''typical monsoon rain, which has come a little bit earlier and heavier than usual this year,'' started at the weekend and were expected to continue until Friday.

Four others died in nearby Sukhothai and Prae provinces.

The monsoon season in tropical Thailand usually lasts until October.

REUTERS SI KN2308