The death toll in relation to last week's widespread flooding and landslides in Southeast Asia surpassed 1,500 on Thursday (December 4), ABC News reports.

A total 837 people were confirmed dead in Indonesia, 479 in Sri Lanka, 185 in Thailand and three in Malaysia as rescue teams' search efforts continued. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for and calls for the government to act in response to decades of deforestation grew amid the rising death toll.

“We need the government to investigate and fix forest management,” said Rangga Adiputra , 31, a teacher whose West Sumatra was swept away.

“We don’t want this costly disaster to happen again," he added.

Heavy rain resulted in severe flooding and triggered landslides from Quang Tri to Lam Dong provinces, which covers an estimat

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