He said the locations involved rivers, beaches, waterfalls and ditches that have high flood potential.

Mohammad Hamdan said the department has been monitoring the locations since last September but due to the unusual amount of rainfall in nine districts in Selangor from Dec 18-20, the search and rescue teams faced some limitations.

“We have deployed our personnel to nine districts including Sepang, Hulu Langat, Gombak and Sabak Bernam to carry out operations to rescue flood victims.

“As for Selangor, due to the rapid rise in floodwaters, we could not meet the needs of the (flood) situation that happened overnight,” he said.

Mohammad Hamdan said the manpower shortage had posed a great challenge to the department in conducting the SAR operations . “There were thousands of victims that had to be rescued and evacuated to safer places, exceeding our capacity,” he said.