Bangkok refuse workers collected about 20 per cent - or 250,000 - fewer floats this Loy Krathong from canals and waterways.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) added that flooding discouraged more people from venturing out.

BMA Public Cleansing Department director Nikhom Waiyaratpanich said city officials collected slightly more than one million krathongs from waterways.

In addition, more people had turned to krathongs made from natural materials. More than eight out of every 10 krathongs recovered were made from these materials. Just 19 per cent of collected krathongs were constructed of polystyrene foam. Nevertheless, those made from bread constituted a tiny proportion of all floats - just more than 1,500. The city said bread krathongs dissolved in waterways and provided food for aquatic life.

Foam krathongs were down on last year by 1 per cent - in line with BMA targets.

Nikhom reported Khlong Toei district saw the most krathongs with 38,000.

He added the fewer krathongs collected could be a result of flooding conditions and the campaign asking families to release just one each.

Meanwhile, entertainment worker Kwanta Wannasan, 22, threatened to kill herself by jumping from a Ratchathewi district pedestrian overpass just five minutes after midnight on Sunday.

Her husband had refused to take her to celebrate the festival. She was dissuaded from jumping by police and later charged. Husband Boonyeun Somsri, 28, said the woman threatened suicide for the same reason last year.

In Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, a six-year-old Burmese boy identified only as Chauytai drowned after falling into an irrigation channel.

He had gone with friends to watch neighbours floating krathongs. His body was recovered yesterday.