Tropical storm claims 4 lives in southern Thailand

BANGKOK - Tropical storm Pabuk has claimed four lives in southern Thailand, police said on Sunday.

A woman evacuated to a center providing shelter for villagers from the storm was found dead in a canal in southern Thailand's Surat Thani Province on Sunday morning. She was the fourth death from Pabuk, the decade's worst storm that has hitting the country's southern part since Friday.

The woman, 57, was found floating face down in the canal with no wounds of physical attack on the body.

Villagers said she left the evacuation center by motorbike on Saturday and never returned. Police believed she had fallen into the canal after an accident and she may have drowned for six hours.

The tropical storm landed on Nakhon Sri Thammarat province at Friday noon, bringing torrential rains, strong winds and flash floods. It has moved over the western coast of Thailand where its ferocity has dropped.

The storm left three deaths and hundreds of homes damaged previously.