BANGKOK, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Flooding caused by heavy rains has stranded some 10,000 residents in the southern Thai city of Hat Yai, local officials said Tuesday.
Hat Yai Mayor Prai Pattano said floodwaters covered 80 percent of the main commercial district and continue to rise, the Thai News Agency reported.
In some areas water reached up to the second floor of commercial buildings, he said.
Four hundred students are reported to be stranded at the Hatyaiwuittayakarn School while Hat Yai Hospital has been forced to evacuate all patients in rooms up to the fifth floor.
The flooding has cut off roads leading into the city.
Hat Yai is located in Songkhla province where 10 districts have been declared disaster zones due to prolonged heavy rains and flooding caused by a tropical depression in the Gulf of Thailand.
Thailand's Meteorological Department said the depression was moving westward Tuesday and widespread torrential rains were expected over much of the south.
