Bangkok - Floods and mudslides in southern Thailand have killed 18 people and affected more than 300 000 over the past five days, the interior ministry said on Tuesday.

Ten provinces in the south have been hit by monsoon rains since Thursday, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation department said in a statement.

"There are 18 people dead and 327 025 people have been affected. Currently the situation has eased in four provinces," it said.

Ten of the deaths occurred in Narathiwat and six in Yala, two of the Muslim-majority southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia that have been gripped by a bloody separatist insurgency since January 2004. - AFP