KUALA LUMPUR - ABOUT 160 participants of a four-wheel drive competition in Terengganu were stuck in the jungles for the second day yesterday, after their exit route was cut off by the collapse of a bridge due to heavy rain.

The participants of the Rainforest Challenge Terengganu 2007 are reportedly running out of food and police are planning their rescue by air if the rains ease up.

Rescuers are trying to send food using off-road vehicles and boats. But should this fail, they will attempt to airdrop supplies.

'We cannot call in air rescue now as the weather does not permit it,' the Fire and Rescue Department's assistant director, Mr Wan Ali Azhar, said over the weekend.

There was no word late yesterday whether rescuers had managed to drop food to those stranded.

The participants included people from Britain, Denmark, Holland, Indonesia, Italy and Poland.

Meanwhile, in Pahang, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, Datin Chew Mei Fun, was injured in a crash while she was travelling in a car from Kuala Lumpur to deliver aid for flood victims.

Also hurt were her private secretary, driver and a volunteer worker.

They were among the victims of Malaysia's annual east coast havoc caused by rains and floods during the year-end monsoon season.

However, the flood situation differed in the various states affected yesterday.

Eight of Kelantan's major rivers were swollen beyond their danger levels, and this has forced more people to flee to higher ground.

But rains have subsided in most parts of Johor and Pahang, officials say.

There has been no report of evacuations in Terengganu.

The death toll from the floods rose to eight yesterday, with the deaths of three more people.

In Kelantan, Aiman Adnan, 11, fell into a big drain and drowned while 20-yearold Rul Azmi Yusoff was swept away while swimming in the murky waters with his friends.

A third death yesterday was reported in Pahang, but private television station TV3 did not give any details of the victim.

'Parents must watch their children closely and not let them play in the water,' Kelantan's Drainage and Irrigation Department director, Mr Lim Chow Hock, pleaded on TV3 news.

In remote Gua Musang in Kelantan, six members of a family died on Saturday when their car skidded during a heavy downpour and hit the back of a lorry.

The car's driver, Mohd Ghazali Ariffin, 33, and his 32-year-old wife were both teachers in Langkawi.

Their three children and Mr Ghazali's sister were the other victims.

BERNAMA, THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK