© ReutersA woman gestures towards passing boats as her dog stands on a fence in flooded Pathum Thani province
Conflicting official information sowed the seeds of doubt about the risk faced by city of 12 million as troops and an army volunteers rushed to shore up sandbag barriers crumbling under the deluge lapping at the periphery of the metropolis.
Stocks of food and bottled water have started to run low.
Panicked residents left bare supermarket shelves in buying sprees and trucks had difficulty making deliveries from outlying areas of the city.
But prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra sought to calm fears on Friday, maintaining Bangkok would be spared. "I insist that the floods will only affect outer Bangkok and will not be widespread in other areas." She toured the area of Rangsit north of the city to inspect the defences against the worst flooding in 50 years that has laid waste to industry and huge tracts of agricultural land in the central plain, leaving almost 300 dead in the past two months.
Bangkok was braced itself for chaos over the weekend as a combination of continuing heavy rains, run off flood waters from the north and the highest high tides threatened a "perfect storm" that could spell disaster.
Apartment blocks, the city's underground system and businesses have all stocked sandbags ready to deploy if the flood defences are breached and the water begins to deluge the heavily-populated hub.
Areas near the banks of the mighty Chao Phraya river - rich with ancient heritage and tourist hotels - are particularly vulnerable. The river snakes its way through the heart of the city to the sea.
One volunteer building up the dykes was concerned. "If these barriers break," said Troy Pannavaj, 32, "this water will rush through Bangkok very fast."
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