Bangkok floods: Thousands flee as waters approach

Thousands of Bangkok residents have been trying to leave the capital

The Thai authorities have ordered a five-day holiday to allow residents of Bangkok to leave the capital ahead of expected flooding.

Bangkok's bus and train stations and many roads are jammed by thousands of people attempting to flee.
People in several northern districts - some of which are now 90% submerged by rising waters - have been told they should evacuate immediately.
More than 360 people have died in Thailand's worst flooding in decades.
The crisis is an early test for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who took office in August and has previously been criticised for failing to take the flood threat seriously enough.
But any lingering sense of complacency has long gone, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok.
'Food rationing' The five-day holiday will run from Thursday through to Monday in Bangkok and in 20 provinces affected by the flooding.

Bangkok's Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra issued an evacuation alert for residents of Don Muang, Bang Phlad and Thawi Wattana districts in the north of the capital.

"This is the first time I am using the term 'evacuation', the first time I'm really asking you to leave," Mr Sukhumbhand said.
The city's Mo Chit bus terminal has already seen huge crowds of people, some of whom had to wait for hours to get a bus to leave the city, say reports.
Britain's Foreign Office on Wednesday warned against all but essential travel to Bangkok.
Earlier this week, Ms Yingluck said existing floodwalls and embankments in the north of the city and around the Chao Phraya river, which snakes through the capital, were especially vulnerable.
She cautioned there could be a calamitous combination of flood waters running into the sea from north, with monthly high tides on Friday and Saturday which could overwhelm recently reinforced flood defences.
Flood waters could linger in the capital for between two weeks and a month, she said, but added they would not be as bad as in some provincial areas, which have been under 2-3m of water for up to three months.
In the city of nine million, there were reports that some shops were rationing stocks of staples including rice and eggs amid stockpiling by anxious residents.
Supplies of bottled water were said to be running low in many areas.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra warned that parts of the capital could be flooded

Residents were protecting their homes and businesses with sandbags - with some even erecting sealed cement barriers across shop fronts, reported the Associated Press news agency.
At Bangkok's second airport, Don Muang, people living in an evacuation shelter are now being moved again.
All flights from Don Muang have already been suspended until next Tuesday, and the runway is flooded.
But the government's flood relief operation centre, which is based on the second floor of the airport, insists it will not relocate.