Raging floodwaters in the country's northeastern states have killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 from their homes, police said today.

The floods have been described as the worst in 40 years in a region regularly hit by monsoon rains at this time of the year.

In the worst-hit state of Kelantan, at least seven people drowned and 5,370 fled their homes, a police spokesman told AFP .

The victims included a three-year-old boy who fell into a drain, a 24-year-old Indonesian labourer swept away by a river and a Thai national whose boat capsized, he said.

Parts of the state capital, Kota Baru, were under more than a metre of water, with electricity supplies cut and shops closed. More than 200 patients were evacuated from flooded wards at the city hospital.

In neighbouring Terengganu, a total of 4,681 people were forced to evacuate their homes, police said.

Three people drowned in Terengganu, including a 30-year-old housewife whose husband made the agonizing decision to save their two sons first as their car hit a flooded section of road.

Zuzuki Mat Sarif grabbed the boys, aged nine and three, and managed to hoist them into a tree before turning back to save his wife who was crying "I am going to die", he told the New Straits Times .

But by then the car had been was swept away by strong currents. His wife's body was found early Monday, police said.

Stranded in a park

A number of roads in Terengganu remained closed after being submerged by floodwaters, said Terengganu police chief Hussin Ismail.

In central Pahang state, an 18-year-old Indonesian youth was believed to have drowned while bathing in a drain, Kuantan district police chief Jamshah Mustapa told AFP . At least 1,483 people had been evacuated in Kuantan alone.

Sixteen people, including eight university students, were stranded in the Endau-Rompin National Park in southern Johor state after four bridges, which are the only way in and out of the park, were submerged.

"The only way to rescue them is by boat which is not practical at the moment due to strong currents," Johor National Park Corporation director Hashim Yusoff told AFP , adding that the group had enough food supplies for two more days.

"They should be able to leave in three days. The water has started to subside. This sort of flooding is expected, it happens every year," he said.

The situation in the flood-hit east coast states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang was also expected to improve, an official from the Meteorological Services Department told AFP .

"It doesn't look like it's going to flood again. We expect only intermittent rains from today," he said.