The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Mexico City

Rescuers Friday battled to reach people perched on rooftops as the worst floods on record in Mexico's southern state of Tabasco left hundreds of thousands of residents trapped.

Television pictures showed people struggling to get to higher ground as rising water levels reached up to their necks.

Others awaited rescue on rooftops, surrounded by floodwater.

Mexican navy crews used small boats to rescue victims of the disastrous floods.

"The event has overwhelmed everybody," Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez Acuna told journalists.

Overnight, military troops evacuated the center of Tabasco's capital Villahermosa after a levy collapsed, and hospital patients in the city of 750,000 were flown to neighboring states as floodwaters continued to rise.