Two elephants drowned during flash flooding in popular Thai tourist hotspot Chiang Mai, their sanctuary said Sunday, as local authorities evacuated visitors from their hotels and shops closed in the city center.

More than 100 elephants at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province were moved to higher ground to escape rapidly rising flood waters, an employee who gave her name as Dada said. But two elephants – named in local media as 16-year-old Fahsai and 40-year-old Ploython, who was blind – were found dead on Oct 6.

Authorities and conservationists are rushing to rescue elephants, pigs and buffaloes from flash flooding in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai province, a senior official said on Friday.

Flooding in northern Thailand has forced many residents of the city of Chiang Mai and its outskirts to seek safety on higher ground, with members of the animal world under similar threat.

Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern city popular with tourists, has been inundated by widespread flooding as its main river overflowed its banks following heavy seasonal rainfall.