Bangkok floods trap residents as PM Anutin cuts UK trip short to tackle crisis

Bangkok residents stranded by neck-deep floodwaters on Sunday appealed for clean water and food, as Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul cut short a diplomatic trip to the United Kingdom to monitor the response amid growing criticism online.In the worst Floods to hit the Thai capital in 15 years, life has ground to a standstill in parts of the city since Friday evening, prompting the town hall to declare a disaster in all 50 districts.Days of incessant rains that overwhelmed Bangkok’s creaking drainage system appeared to have let up on Sunday morning, leaving residents cautiously hopeful that the water may have stopped rising.But densely populated eastern Bangkok remains hard hit, with canals unable to drain the volume of water pouring out from inundated roads and homes.Residents of at least two large housing complexes in the east of the city took to social media to appeal for help as a deluge that has virtually submerged cars cut them off from fresh food and water supplies.People are transported by boats in Bangkok on Sunday. Photo: ReutersIn one block of flats in Bang Kapi district, residents said that with each passing hour without help they feared being exposed to mounting risks that come with Floods in Southeast Asian megacities – including electrocution, disease and encounters with snakes flushed out from the drains.“The water [around the flats] is chest high. No one has come to help us at all,” Siraprapha Sangseeluem, 24, told This Week in Asia.