KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (CNN) -- Heavy monsoon rains have forced more than 1,500 people to flee their homes to escape flooding, news reports said on Saturday.
Since the drenching rains began on Sunday, Malaysians in six districts of Pahang state in the northeast peninsula region have been evacuated from their homes, the national Bernama news agency said.
Dozens of people sought shelter in community halls and schools in the neighboring states of Johor, Terengganu and Kelantan, according to news reports.
On Friday, a 14-year-old boy in Kelantan was missing and feared drowned while bathing in a river, Bernama said. There were no new reports of injuries from the flooding.
The northeast monsoon normally starts in mid-November and ends in March.
Malaysia's Information Minister Mohamed Rahmat, who oversees the national disaster management task force, said the heavy rains were not due to La Nina, the meteorological sister of the El Nino weather pattern which brought drought to much of Southeast Asia last year.