Thousands of households in Thailand’s southern provinces were hit by severe flooding on Monday 25 December, after two days of torrential rains. Houses, roads and railways have been left submerged, with some swept away, in the hardest hit areas of Narathiwat and Yala. Officials said that flooding has impacted nearly 20,000 households across the region, which is close to the border with Malaysia. Torrential rain has also caused problems at sea, with at least seven boats sunk in the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea since last Friday.