Entire Bangkok neighbourhoods were inundated on Saturday as the city government declared a flood disaster after the worst rains in years overwhelmed the Thai capital, submerging roads, cars and forcing thousands to leave their homes.

Bangkok is flood-prone, especially during the monsoon season, but waters rarely linger for long. Nonetheless, the city’s drainage is notoriously ill-equipped to handle storm bursts as it struggles to cope with waters that have reached at least two feet (60cm) and are still rising.

Over 48 hours of continuous rain have paralysed parts of Bangkok amid the intensifying, unpredictable extremes of the climate crisis. Rains have pounded the city since Wednesday, intensifying on Friday with no respite forecast until late Sunday.

In the Pra Kanong district, a hodgepodge of markets, hotels, cafes and bars on the main Sukhumvit Road, floodwaters dumped garbage through narrow alleyways where expensive villas stand alongside working-class shophouses and blocks of flats.

“In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never seen flooding this bad,” said Bangkok resident Narin Wernthaisong, who was wading through thigh-high water.