Influenced by low pressure ridges and the southwestern monsoon, thundershowers and flash-flooding were forecast this week for Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan, Phrae, Lampang, Uttaradit, Sukhothai, Phitsanulok and Phetchabun, the northern weather bureau said.

With 151,294 villagers from 43,436 households in 13 districts affected by the flooding between August 19 and 26, Nan Governor Prinya Panthong said yesterday that he had approved a budget of Bt500,000 for each district to supply food for flood victims, while relief and rehabilitation operations continued.

In Chiang Mai's Mae Rim district, at least 1,000 low-lying houses were on the verge of being submerged due to heavy overnight rain on Sunday and the rising Mae Rim River, official Jeerachat Seutrakul said. The local authority has therefore urged residents to move their belongings to higher ground and has piled sandbags along the river, Jeerachat said.

The body of technical college student Arunrit Pratheungsawat, 18, was discovered at Wang Bua Ban waterfall in Muang district, following a report by his friends that Arunrit had been swept away by muddy floodwater.

Meanwhile, local officials used heavy machinery to rescue 20 villagers stranded at the Mae Poon waterfall in Uttaradit's Laplae district. he group - who had gone to collect fruit - were stranded after downpours caused landslides and flash-floods that cut off access to the area.

Flooding in Phitsanulok's Nakhon Thai and Noen Maprang districts has receded since the rain stopped. In the north-eastern province of Loei, six homes in Chiang Khan district were damaged by flooding, while the local authority prepared evacuation and rescue operations as mud from a landslide at Phu Pha Din Pok moved closer to the community.