Foreign

Dozens of people are missing and one person has died after a boat carrying migrants sank near the border between Thailand and Malaysia.

The vessel is believed to have capsized near the southern Thai island of Ko Tarutao on Thursday, the Malaysian Coast Guard said.

Ten people have been rescued and the body of a woman was found floating in the sea.

Maritime officials believe the victims are part of a group of about 300 people who had been travelling on a larger vessel before splitting onto small boats as they approached Malaysia.

Those rescued near the Malaysian resort of Langkawi include three Myanmar men, two Rohingya men and one Bangladeshi man, according Malaysia’s state-run agency Bernama quoting a police chief.

The body found in the water was that of a Rohingya woman, the report added.

Efforts to look for more survivors are under way.

The mostly-Muslim Rohinga community has fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar in huge number in recent years to escape persecution.

Conflict and conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh have also continued to push vulnerable people onto overcrowded vessels as they seek a better life in Malaysia.

Officials say many of those fleeing would have paid more than $3,000 (£2,300) for passage.

BBC/Adebukola Aluko

Foreign News

At least 33 people have died in western Germany and many more are missing following severe floods.

The worst of the flooding has been in the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, where buildings and cars have been washed away.

At least six others have died in neighbouring Belgium, and the city of Liège has urged all residents to leave.

It follows record rainfall in parts of western Europe that has caused major rivers to burst their banks.

The Netherlands has also been badly hit, with flooding rivers damaging many houses in the southern province of Limburg. A number of care homes have also had to be evacuated.

Malu Dreyer, chief of Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate state, described the flooding as a “catastrophe”.

“There are dead, missing and many people still in danger,” she said, “All of our emergency services are in action round the clock and risking their own lives.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in the US ahead of a meeting with President Joe Biden, said she was “shocked by the disaster”.

At least 19 people died in the Ahrweiler district of Rhineland-Palatinate, after the Ahr river, which flows into the Rhine, burst its banks.

Police helicopters and hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to some areas to help stranded residents.

 Earlier, police said dozens of people were waiting on rooftops to be rescued.

Schools have been closed around the west of the country, while transport links have been severely disrupted.

BBC