Deepavali picnic in Malaysia turns tragic as flash floods hit Selangor

Flash floods during a Deepavali picnic in Malaysia have killed a man and left seven others missing, as authorities evacuated hundreds from flood-prone areas in Selangor and Perak states amid a strengthening monsoon season.

The shifting monsoon winds also triggered a surge in thunderstorms across the country, helping clear out a months-long curtain of transboundary haze.

Local officials said they found the body of the victim, identified as V. Vijayan, at around 1.30am on Tuesday at a bridge about 2.7km (1.6 miles) from the Sungai Pertak picnic site in Selangor. He was believed to have gathered there with a group a day before to celebrate the festival also known as Diwali.

Seven others – four Indian nationals and one each from Yemen, Sri Lanka and Nepal – remain missing.

Search operations resumed on Tuesday morning across four sectors surrounding the riverside holiday spot and 19 people were rescued from the area, national news agency Bernama cited Selangor Fire and Rescue Department assistant operations director Asrul Riezal Asbar as saying.

This was the first reported fatality linked to the latest bout of flooding, which last week caused a bridge collapse in Selangor and triggered massive traffic jams after sections of a major highway were submerged by floodwaters.

Just days before, thousands were forced to navigate surging flash floods in the low-lying township of Puncak Alam in the state.

Residents blamed poor drainage and badly managed development for their seasonal woes, prompting Chief Minister Amirudin Shari to impose an immediate stop-work order on all ongoing developments in the area and to re-evaluate Selangor’s flood mitigation plan and environmental impact assessment.

“We are facing a climate change crisis and flood mitigation work must be aligned with the challenges that we are facing so that we can avoid whatever harm to the public,” Amirudin said in a statement last Friday, adding that 1,500 ringgit (US$369) in aid will be extended to flood evacuees.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim later announced on Monday an additional 2,500 ringgit in aid for all eligible households affected by the floods in Selangor.

Malaysia, along with much of Southeast Asia, has faced worsening floods in recent years as warming global temperatures drive increasingly severe climate shifts that swing wildly from record temperatures to unprecedented rainfall.

Six people were killed as floods swept across nine Malaysian states in late 2024, causing nearly 1 billion ringgit in damages, devastating homes and crops and forcing the evacuation of 150,000 residents.

In 2023, a “once-in-a-century” flood in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor damaged an estimated 6 billion ringgit worth of public infrastructure, homes and vehicles.