Heavy rains have been lashing the east coast of Malaysia's peninsula since Monday. Northeast Kelantan state police chief Zulkifli Abdullah said the bodies of two children were found on Wednesday.

Mohamad Amin Azmi, 16, drowned after falling into a flooded monsoon drain while nine-year-old Nor Amira Sharifuddin was swept away by strong currents as she was playing in an irrigation canal, he was quoted as saying by the national Bernama news agency.

In neighbouring Terengganu, the body of three-year-old Tengku Fakhrul Razi Idzam was found floating in the Dungun river near his home, district deputy police chief Che Hamzah Che Ismail said.

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from Terengganu and Kelantan as well as central Pahang state which borders the other two, while thousands more could be moved soon as water levels continue to rise in local rivers, said the New Straits Times.

The water levels in at least eight rivers in the three states had reached dangerous levels as of late Wednesday, a Drainage and Irrigation Department spokesman was quoted as saying by the Star daily.

A Meteorological Department spokesman said heavy rains were expected to continue in Kelantan until Friday, followed by intermittent rains over the weekend.