Thai floods leave dozens dead
 

Rescuers used dogs, helicopters, and their bare hands Thursday in the continuous search for victims of devastating flash floods in northern Thailand that killed 50 people and left almost the same number missing.

A thousand soldiers joined the grim task in Uttaradit, where teams sifted through mud and debris for bodies in the province's hard-hit Tha Pla district, which was devastated by a landslide, Maj. Lertchai Khaithong said.

Amnuay Chantamun, a top district official, was quoted by TV Channel 9 as saying that he feared that more than 100 people were still buried in mud, some of them itinerant plantation workers who might not be reported missing and whose bodies could be difficult to identify.

Another official, Kiartiphan Rangsrisakorn, said the bodies of 10 people from his village were discovered and 48 people were still listed as missing.

"At this moment we presume that those missing are dead," he said.

Three trained search and rescue dogs were sent by helicopter to Tha Pla district to search for bodies, said Maj. Lertchai, chief of the search and rescue center in Uttaradit.

"We believe that a large number of dead bodies were covered by mud, so we need sniffing dogs to help," he said.

Heartbreaking tales were told by survivors of the flooding, which crested early Tuesday.

Ten-year-old Kanchana Thepanan lost her parents and grandmother in the flooding.

"The tree felt on my face and I was trying to push myself up," she told iTV television from her hospital bed.

Kanchana said the roaring waters swept family members from her house in all different directions.