Thailand flood death toll reaches 74

Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of 74 flash-flood victims in northern Thailand.

But they also saved a boy who survived the raging torrents by clinging to a clump of bamboo for more than 30 hours.

Dozens of others are still missing from the deluge which swept down a mountainside on Saturday through villages in Phetchabun province.

A mass cremation of the dead is scheduled for Monday.

An official at the rescue centre in the town of Lomsak said six-year-old Nakhin Phansaeng was found hanging on to a bamboo stand some two miles from his house.

The official said the boy told rescuers he was swept from his house but managed to cling to floating debris that took him to the bamboo grove. He is being treated at a local hospital.

The flash flood, the worst in 13 years, occurred as heavy rains caused flooding in many parts of the country's north and northeast.

Hundreds of local officials, police, soldiers and volunteers involved in aid and rescue operations worked after the floodwaters receded overnight, leaving areas of Lomsak district devastated and blanketed in mud.

Many of those killed were women and children, caught asleep in their homes when the waters careened down the mountainsides, carrying mud and even tree trunks.

Flash floods during the rainy season, which lasts from June to October, are a perennial problem in Thailand. The danger has worsened in recent years because massive deforestation has eroded the top soil and vegetation that would stem flooding.