KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The number of deaths caused by the floods in Malaysia stood at 26 and thousands more forced to flee homes on Monday, local media reported on Tuesday.

    For the first time, the Royal Malaysian Air Force used a transport aircraft to air-drop food supplies in central state of Pahang on Monday for distribution to relief centers cut off by floodwaters.

    Northern Kelantan state, meanwhile, continued to suffer the most as the number of evacuees in the state more than doubled.

    A police spokesman said 8,066 residents had been moved from their flood-hit homes to relief centers. On Sunday, the figure stood at 3,501.

    The number of flood victims forced out of their houses in Pahang also increased from 21,000 on Sunday to 23,102 on Monday.

    Most of the new evacuees were from villages along the main rivers in the state, a spokesman for Pahang state flood operations center said.

    "The weather here may seem to have improved over the past few days, but the rivers keep on swelling due to the huge volume of water," the New Straits Times quoted the spokesman as saying.

    There was better news for Johor, however, as more people continued to slowly return to their dwellings.

    According to a Johor state flood operations center spokesman, 3,169 victims from 831 families are still seeking shelter at relief centers.