Heavy rain forecast

The tropical story, which was about 150 km southeast of Hanoi with winds gusting to 65kmh as of 4am yesterday, was expected to move west at 18 kmh and land near Thunvar, after which it was likely to become a tropical depression.

It was expected to bring heavy downpours to upper northern Thailand over the next two to four days.

More heavy rain was also forecasted for the South as a monsoon in the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand was inten-sifying. Ships in the Andaman and upper Gulf were warned to sail with caution because of moderate wind and waves.

Chiang Mai's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation chief Prajon Pratsakul said networks were on alert for dangers from heavy rains and flooding. Some 914 villages in 24 districts were declared flood-risk areas, with 577 villages made "red zones".