COLOMBO (AP): At least four people were killed and more than 71,000 displaced by floods caused by heavy rains in northern Sri Lanka, officials said Saturday.

Keerthi Ekanayake of the Disaster Management Center said the northern Jaffna peninsula and Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts were inundated and nearly 6,000 houses destroyed by persistent showers over the past few days.

Hundreds of thousands of people had already been displaced by fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels and were living in temporary huts in the region.

The government plans to send emergency aid and shelter materials, Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

Aid agencies were evicted from the rebel-held territory in September by the government, which said it could not guarantee their security amid the fighting.