Flooding causes airport shutdown

BANGKOK (AP):

Advancing flood waters in Thailand shut down commercial flights yesterday at Bangkok's second airport, spilling across a complex housing the country's flood-relief headquarters in one of the biggest blows yet to government attempts to prevent the sprawling capital from being swamped.

The effective closure of Don Muang airport, which is used primarily for domestic flights, was sure to further erode public confidence in the ability of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's administration to defend the increasingly anxious metropolis of nine million people.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport, the country's main international gateway, has yet to be affected by flooding and flights there were operating normally. Most of the city has been spared inundation so far.

Don Muang has come to symbolise the gravity of the Southeast Asian nation's deepening crisis, which has seen advancing waters swamp a third of the country and kill 366 people over the last three months.

The airport houses the government's recently established emergency Flood Relief Operations Centre, and one of its terminals has been converted into an overcrowded shelter filled with tents for about 4,000 people who fled waterlogged homes.