Bangkok floodwaters begin to ease after torrential rains affect 700,000 people

BANGKOK (AP) — Floodwaters in Thailand ’s capital were slowly receding on Monday after nearly continuous rainfall over the weekend, although some neighborhoods and major roads remained inundated.

Rain continued intermittently, but Bangkok city officials said conditions had improved enough to accelerate drainage efforts. Water levels in four main canals had risen too high over the weekend to take in runoff from surrounding communities.

More rain was forecast across much of Thailand, although Bangkok was expected to receive less. Cambodia and Myanmar were also experiencing severe weather.

The weekend flooding affected 329,000 households, or about 700,000 people, the Bangkok Flood Control Center reported, according to Deputy Gov. Tavida Kamolvej. Thai media reported two flood-related deaths in the city and at least 10 nationwide.

Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt declared a flood emergency Saturday across all 50 city districts, although some were relatively unscathed. He said authorities were prioritizing assistance for vulnerable residents, including older people and those with disabilities, by delivering supplies or evacuating them. City officials said nearly 7,000 people were staying in shelters.

Neighborhoods in eastern Bangkok were hit hardest. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul donned white rain boots Sunday night to inspect a heavily flooded housing estate in Bang Kapi district and help distribute relief supplies.

Water was about knee-deep Monday near a train station and shopping mall in Bang Kapi. Despite intermittent downpours, shoppers waded through the water carrying bags, backpacks and boxes of groceries. Some traveled to and from the station in a small boat provided by the mall.

For Naowarat Supanikorn, a 55-year-old maid who shares a single-story house with three dogs and six cats, the flooding was more than an inconvenience.

She said she realized at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday that water was seeping into her home.

“I had to take my dogs and cats out,” she said. “I had to leave them with my neighbor. I have taken them back today because they said the sun would come out, but it looks like the rain will come back.”

She said the flooding in her neighborhood reached above her hips at its highest, and had since dropped to about knee-level. She said the bigger problem is that she has lost her job working at a condominium.

“My workplace also said if I can’t come to work, they’re happy to take my resignation. So I thought, that’s fine, I’ll quit.”

To try to generate some income, she bought supplies to make some food she can sell streetside, but business is slow in the flooded conditions.

“It’s stressful. If the bills come, I’d be cooked, because I don’t have work now. If I have to pay for water or electricity now it would be bad,” she said. “I’m not worried about me but I’m worried about my pets. I’ve lived with them my whole life. They’re my priority. It’s ok if I don’t have work and starve myself, but I’d like help for my pets.”

The flood also has had knock-on effects, including panic buying of food, disrupted supply chains for food and other items, and staffing problems at various enterprises whose employees were unable to get to their jobs.

The Thai Air Force announced it was sending 69 ground personnel to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport to help clear a backlog of passenger luggage caused largely by airport workers being unable to get to their place of work.

“This deployment is a vital mission to care for, assist, and facilitate travelers — including tourists from around the world — ensuring smooth operations and preventing delays in ground services, thereby upholding the nation’s positive image,” the air force said.

The airport previously attributed the baggage pileup to “insufficient staffing to support ground handling operations” and problems with some baggage carts.

The disruptions delayed some departures and forced arriving passengers to wait longer than usual for their luggage, with baggage from several flights still undelivered, the airport said.

The government declared special holidays on Monday and Tuesday for state offices. It advised state enterprises, financial institutions, private businesses and hospitals to determine whether they needed to remain open.

Thailand’s meteorological agency forecast heavy to very heavy rain across several parts of the country. It warned residents, particularly in northern, central and eastern regions, to prepare for possible flash floods, river overflows, forest runoff and landslides, especially near waterways, foothills and low-lying areas.

In neighboring Myanmar, at least 10 people were killed and dozens were missing after heavy rain triggered widespread flooding and landslides in the southern coastal region of Tanintharyi, local media reported.

Dawei township recorded 346 millimeters (13.62 inches) of rain Monday, breaking an 80-year-old record. Myanmar’s Meteorology Department warned that conditions could worsen as the storm front moved closer to Yangon.

Flash floods struck at least 10 provinces in Cambodia, affecting 44,889 families and forcing nearly 4,000 people to evacuate, according to disaster management officials.

The agency overseeing the archaeological park in Siem Reap province, home to the centuries-old Angkor temple complex, said it was operating water gates and diversion systems to reduce the risk of flooding.

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Associated Press writer Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia contributed to this report.

Residents of a building look out at the flooded street after heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Rescuers evacuate a patient from a flooded area to a safer place in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded area to a safer place in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

The streets are flooded after a heavy rain, in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

People wade through a flooded street after a heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Benjamin Netanyahu traveled secretly to the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to ask its leader to deny reports he'd warned the Israeli prime minister about a looming Hamas threat ahead of the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took place on Sunday, two people who were briefed on the Israeli leader's trip confirmed on Monday.

Meanwhile, the European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the bloc is applying for observer status in a Saudi-led maritime defense coalition formed to protect the kingdom's energy exports. The EU already has six vessels deployed to the Red Sea to protect shipping.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Monday. Full coverage is available here.

The Israeli prime minister held an hourlong meeting with the UAE’s president on Sunday, according to two people briefed on Netanyahu's trip, which was first reported by Israel’s Channel 12 TV station.

One of them said the talks focused on a report published by the Israeli daily Haaretz earlier this month that said the Emirati leader warned Netanyahu about a looming attack by Hamas just ahead of Oct. 7, 2023.

Netanyahu asked Sheikh Mohamed to deny the report, according to a person said to have firsthand information about the meeting. Netanyahu’s office had previously denied the Haaretz report.

The person, along with a regional official briefed on the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the secret trip.

The UAE’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on reports about the meeting but stressed it maintains “open and direct lines of communication” with Israel and shares “all relevant intelligence.”

There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.

—By Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Samy Magdy in Cairo

The European Union is applying for “observer status” in a new multinational maritime defense coalition led by Saudi Arabia formed to protect the kingdom’s energy exports.

The bloc’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas made the announcement on Monday, ahead of a Brussels meeting. The energy-hungry EU is facing record energy prices due to the war in Iran.

Kallas said she will ask for an expansion of the bloc’s own small naval force in the Red Sea dubbed ASPIDES to help escort cargo vessels through the key strategic chokepoint of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and protect them from attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

Kallas said the “need is bigger than it’s ever been” for more ships. It’s unclear what observer status in the Saudi-led coalition would mean operationally for either the EU or ASPIDES.

The World Health Organization said Sunday that it has documented 164 deaths and 645 injuries from the war in Yemen between Sept. 19 and Sept. 26.

This brings the overall casualties since Aug. 6 to 4,481, with 838 fatalities. The latest intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthis and Yemeni government forces has displaced more than 180,000 people.

Earlier this month, the Houthis stormed down Yemen’s coast and seized the crucial port city of Mokha and key Red Sea islands, acquiring higher ground from where they can monitor — and possibly attack — ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, through which about 12% of the world’s trade usually passes.

A woman was killed while her husband was wounded when an Israeli strike hit a Gaza City rooftop, Shifa Hospital officials said. Another person was also wounded and remains in critical condition.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the Gaza ceasefire took effect nearly a year ago. Around half of that number are women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which maintains detailed records that international organizations consider reliable.

Israel’s polarizing Cabinet minister in charge of settlement construction, Bezalel Smotrich, has condemned a decision by the attorney general to freeze a contentious project near Jerusalem.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered the project to be put on hold until after the Oct. 27 elections so it wouldn't “be used for election propaganda.”

The project — known as E1 settlement development — was approved in August 2025 after decades of planning and delays, and a construction tender for some 3,000 housing units was issued earlier this year. It's especially controversial because it would carve out a strategic section of the West Bank in a way that critics say would destroy hopes for a viable future Palestinian state.

Smotrich accused on X Baharav-Miara of “interfering in the election campaign” and acting in the service of Netanyahu’s political opponents.

Israel summoned the Spanish Embassy’s chargé d’affaires over remarks by Spain's youth minister who declared the country's public support for a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” — a slogan that implies a call for the elimination of the Israeli state.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday that Spanish Youth Minister Sira Rego’s remarks were “part of a systematic anti-Israel policy pursued by the Spanish government” and its leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

The ministry said Rego had opted not to condemn the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led militant attacks on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Rego was barred from entering Israel in Sept. 2025.

This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.

A displaced Yemeni boy plays at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

Volunteer Naseem Al-Adini, right, provides free meals to displaced people at the Al-Akdaf camp in Taiz, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

A displaced Yemeni walks at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

Displaced Yemenis sit outside at Al-Firdaws camp in Ras Imran, on the western outskirts of Aden, Yemen, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

Displaced Yemeni children from Al-Kadha, west of Taiz, gather at the Al-Akdaf camp in Taiz, Yemen, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)

FILE - Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens during a news conference with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)