Thai torrent kills 21 village students

The coffins pile up in Nam Kor, where at least 90 have died in floods

By staff and wires

BANGKOK, Thailand -- At least 21 primary school students, most of them girls, were killed when a flash flood torrent swept through a village in northern Thailand.

With the death toll rising close to 100, grief swept the remains of three villages after the water.

Ninety of the deaths occurred in the village of Nam Kor in Phetchabun province.

Two bodies were recovered there Tuesday while sniffer dogs and rescue teams searched for 32 others still missing, district chief Samran Boonrodrid said by telephone. The area is 185 miles north of Bangkok.

"Many villagers are in a state of shock and they have to be given sleeping pills and anti-depressants to ease their suffering," said Somrak Sritrakul, a doctor at Lom Sak hospital.

COUNTRY PROFILE At a glance: Thailand Provided by CountryWatch.com    CNN.com Asia More news from our Asia edition

"One old villager we are treating is in a state of severe mental shock. He keeps murmuring something we do not understand. It as if his life has gone," Somrak said by telephone.

"He lost all his family members in the flood. Only he survived."

Officials said the Nam Kor tragedy could have been avoided if villagers had heeded a warning that they were in the middle of a path carrying dangerous runoff from nearby hills.

Nam Kor leaders had urged villagers to evacuate following the weather forecast, local official Apai Chantanajulaka told The Nation newspaper.

"Villagers refused to listen to the warning because they had lived in the area for 100 years and were unconcerned," he said.

Nam Kor and two other villages were wiped out in the floods and mudslides.

The Bangkok Post newspaper reported that 21 students at a school in Nam Kor were among those killed and that many children remained missing.

Heavy rains in the past few days have caused floods in 24 provinces, mostly in northern and north eastern Thailand.

The danger has worsened in recent years because massive deforestation has eroded the top soil and vegetation that would stem flooding.

In 1988, 317 villagers were killed when flash floods swept down hill slopes in the southern province of Nakhon Sri Thammarat. The tragedy prompted the government to ban all logging in Thailand.