Over 100 tourists stranded by floods in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - More than 100 local and foreign tourists have been stranded at Mutiara Taman Negara Resort as a river surpassed its danger level, the country's state news agency Bernama reported on Wednesday.

Bernama said that the park witnessed its highest rainfall on Tuesday since 1971 and the local tourist jetty was closed due to swift currents.

The report quoted an unnamed resort employee as saying that the foreign tourists stranded came from Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands, and there were also some local tourists.

"They should have left today (Tuesday) but the dangerous river has cut off the place from the outside world and we are running low on food. Nonetheless we ensure the safety and wellbeing of tourists and if necessary we will use a helicopter to drop food for us tomorrow," he said.

The local authorities had held a special meeting to discuss measures to get out the tourists.

Floods continued to ravage several states in Malaysia, sending more than 58,000 people to evacuation centers as of Wednesday morning.

The northern state of Kelantan had the most number of evacuees followed by the states of Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Sabah and Perlis.