FO advise against travel to Bangkok

The Foreign Office has issued a warning against travel to Bangkok while Italy is also hit by floods.

Following months of flooding in Thailand, the FO website is now advising against all by essential travel to Thailand's capital city and 26 other provinces.

But it added: "Our advice against all but essential travel to the city of Bangkok does not include transit through Suvarnabhumi international airport.  

"Flights to destinations elsewhere in Thailand (eg the resorts of Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Phuket, and Koh Samui) continue to operate normally."

The Thai authorities have ordered a five-day holiday to allow residents to evacuate the capital. It will run from today until Monday.

Inmates at the infamous Bang Kwang Central Prison, better known as the Bangkok Hilton, on the banks of the Chao Phraya river have been moved due to flooding concerns.

More than 360 people have died in Thailand's worst flooding in decades.

In Italy, torrential rain was also threatening lives, affecting the popular tourist area of Cinque Terre among others.

Rescue workers were searching for missing people in Liguria and Tuscany with the province of La Spezia and its UNESCO- protected tourist site of Monterosso particularly badly hit.