BANGKOK, Aug 22, 2024 (AFP) - Floods caused by seasonal heavy rains in northern Thailand have killed five people and inundated more than 2,000 hectares of farmland, government officials said Thursday, with thousands of homes affected.

New Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has asked for help to be sent to the worst affected areas in Chiang Rai, Nan and Phayao provinces.

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said 2,052 hectares of farmland had been destroyed and 12,777 households had been affected by the floods, without specifying how many people that represented.

The health ministry said that five people were killed and 32 injured in flooding over the past month.

The kingdom's north has been hit by heavy monsoon rains over the last week and the department said it was monitoring water levels in 43 provinces, warning of possible further flash floods, landslides and rivers bursting their banks.

While Thailand experiences annual monsoon rains in the last quarter of the year, man-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Widespread flooding across Thailand in 2011 killed more than 500 people and damaged millions of homes around the country.