The Ayutthaya provincial police chief has ordered a step-up of security for rural villagers who have escaped flooding to take refuge on the roadsides and irrigation canal banks.
Pol Maj-Gen Sutthi Puangpikul, commander of Ayutthaya provincial police, ordered police in seven districts of Bang Barn, Bang Sai, Bang Pa-in, Sena, Pak Hai, Phra Nakhon Sriayudhya and Bang Pahan to step up their patrols of the public areas used by flood-affected people as their temporary shelter.
Many of them have set up tents on the roadsides of the main highway or on high ground beside irrigation canals and brought with them their farming gears, cars and other valuables.
The policemen were ordered to make sure that these flood escapees are safe from opportunistic thieves or robbers while they are taking temporary refuge from flooding.
Northern runoffs compounded with torrential rains have flooded a large swathe of low-lying areas in Ayutthaya for the past several days, forcing many inhabitants to seek temporary shelter on the roadsides and other high grounds.
