Two elderly women were carried away by the strong current and drowned when a packed bus was swept off the road by a flash flood while travelling from Surat Thani to Nakhon Sri Thammarat on Tuesday night.
The bus, carrying 52 passengers, ended up overturned in a roadside waterway in tambon Thungsai in Nakhon Sri Thammarat's Sichon district.
Rescuers and soldiers were rushed to the scene but struggled to help the passengers to safety, their efforts made difficult by the deep, strongly flowing water that also covered the road.
They eventually moved 50 of the passengers to safety. The other two - Chan Khamkaeo, 68, and Mani Khamkaeo, 63 - were missing, Sichon police chief Chokdi Rakwatthanaphong said.
Their bodies were found as the water receded on Wednesday morning, about 300 metres away near a care centre for the homeless, Maj Gen Prasoet Saithongthae, of the special warfare unit chief, told Pacific News on Wednedsay.
Nakhon Sri Thammarat is among the southern provinces along the Gulf coast where flash-flood warnings have been issued as the strong northeastern monsoon hammers the region.
In the province's Lan Saka district, a flash flood also burst into a resort late on Tuesday night, sending guests running for safety. Rescuers had to wade through quickly rising floodwater to help a Briton and his Thai wife who were trapped inside.
In the nearby province of Surat Thani, 56 families were evacuated from their homes in Moo 1 village in Don Sak district in the early hours of Wednesday after it was hit by a mountain torrent.
