KUCHING, Feb 20 — The number of flood victims evacuated to temporary relief centres in the state continue to rise to 858 this morning from 755 yesterday.

According to the statement from the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee secretariat, three more relief centres were opened, bringing the total to 12 as at 8 am.

Of the total, seven were in Samarahan, three in Kuching and two in Lundu.

Just about a month after the first wave of floods, several places in the city here were hit by another round of water disaster yesterday following continuous rain from Thursday evening.

The city traffic came to a standstill after several major roads were submerged under rising water as early as dawn, cutting off major land links to neighbouring districts such as Kota Samarahan and Serian. — Bernama