Six-year-old girl swept to her death by raging torrent | Bangkok Post: news

Six-year-old girl swept to her death by raging torrent

A six-year-old girl was killed when she was washed away by a mountain torrent into a creek in Tak province.

A rescue team found the body of Rut Sae-kue trapped between rocks about 4km from the spot where floodwater swept her away in tambon Chong Khap of Phop Phra district on Monday.

Rut, a pupil of Thai Ratkhiri School in Ban San Yot Doi, was washed away by the massive runoff when she and her elder brothers left their bicycles and walked home on a flooded road in Ban Pa Khaem. Her brothers tried to help her but she disappeared in the water.

Thongsuk Yusi, director of Tak's education zone 2, said the area between Ban San Yot Doi and Ban Pa Khaem is prone to mountain torrents.

The school provides a car to transport students between the villages, but Rut and her brothers did not take the car because they had a bicycle, she said.

Meanwhile, deputy government spokesman Anuson Iamsa-at yesterday said cabinet members were concerned that villagers hit by last year's flooding may follow the lead of recent protests against allegedly unequal compensation payments. In Pathum Thani and Ayutthaya, protesters have blocked roads to petition against different rates of compensation in the same neighbourhoods.

Mr Anuson admitted the government "might have made some mistakes" when setting up committees to assess damage to houses, but said residents could make complaints to the government without the need to stage rallies.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, on the last day of an official visit to Australia, contacted a cabinet meeting by telephone yesterday, asking ministers to keep a close watch on the water situation because of low pressure in the North.

The Bhumibol and Sirikit dams, which are major reservoirs intended to retain runoff from the North, have water levels between 31% and 50% of their capacities, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said.