Floods forced the evacuation of 1, 700 prisoners from Pra Nakorn Sri Ayutthaya jail in central Thailand because of fears for their safety.<br/> The inmates left the building under armed guard clinging to a rope stretched between its gates and a heavy truck as the flood waters swirled around them.<br/> Water has submerged large areas of the prison in an old town of Ayutthaya province 105 kilometres north of Bangkok.<br/> All the inmates were transferred to other nearby jails.<br/> Residents in Ayutthaya are also struggling to cope with the floods.<br/> The 400-year-old World Heritage Chai Wattanaram temple in the same province has also fallen victim.<br/> The flooding has claimed at least 244 lives in Thailand since mid-July.<br/> Another 167 people have been killed in neighbouring Cambodia.<br/> Fifteen more have died in Vietnam.<br/> One United Nations agency has said the floods are the worst to hit parts of Southeast Asia in half a century.<br/> The Centre for Economic and Business Forecasting in Thailand has cut its forecast for GDP growth this year by nearly one per cent because of the disaster.
