Cambodians Plead To King

Six people drowned in a storm, and hundreds of victims of Cambodia's worst flooding in decades camped outside the royal palace Wednesday beseeching the king for help.

The deaths raised to 258 the number of Cambodians killed in the flooding since July. The flooding has affected 2.7 million people including 1.3 million in urgent need of food, housing and medicine, according to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The six died Tuesday when a boat carrying villagers to an aid distribution station near the Vietnamese border went down, said Choup Sithan, a relief official. He said two people were missing and eight survived.

Hundreds of cold and hungry people have gathered every day for the past week in a public space adjacent to the palace and the National Assembly. Some claim they have been kicked off their land, but most say they are flood victims who have traveled from other provinces seeking food.

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Wednesday sent a letter to King Norodom Sihanouk on behalf of the villagers.

"These people sleep directly on the earth exposed to the wind and the rain of the seasons and among them are many elderly women and children," he wrote.

He said they asked him to transmit their message of distress to Sihanouk and Queen Monique "who never abandon their children and grandchildren."

Srey Nory, a palace official, said the king and queen have helped "thousands and thousands" of flood victims in the past two months.

The Cambodian government and international aid agencies have provided aid to more than 250,000 of the 550,000 families affected by the flooding, according to government figures. About 57,000 families have lost their homes.

Hun Sen said Tuesday that the flooding, caused by the Mekong River and its tributaries overflowing their banks, has damaged or destroyed 102 irrigation projects, 988 schools and 121 clinics. More than 741,000 acres of rice paddies have been destroyed, he said.

In Vietnam, flooding has begun spreading north from Vietnam's inundated Mekong Delta, with 12 inches to 20 inches of rain swamping large swaths of land the past five days, officials said Wednesday.

Flooding, which has extended to 10 central and southern provinces, has left 327 dead in Vietnam, including 239 children, in the Mekong Delta alone, officials said.

More than 45,000 families have been displaced by the Mekong's worst floods in four decades, they said.

In Bangladesh, late monsoon floods have marooned or left homeless more than 3 million people. At least 20 million have been affected in neighboring India.

The official flood death toll in Bangladesh is 30 and more than 1,000 in India's West Bengal state.

Thousands of cattle have perished in the floods in both countries, although no official estimate is available.

By CHRIS DECHERD