Floodwaters were rising in two cities in Russia’s Ural mountains yesterday after Europe’s third longest river burst through a dam, flooding at least 6,000 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee with just their pets and a few belongings.
Some of the worst floods in decades have hit a string of Russian regions in the Ural Mountains and Siberia, alongside parts of neighbouring Kazakhstan in recent days.
The Ural River, which rises in the Ural Mountains and flows into the Caspian Sea, swelled several metres in just hours on Friday due to melt water, bursting through a dam embankment in the city of Orsk, 1,800km east of Moscow.
More than 4,000 people were evacuated in Orsk as swathes of the city of 230,000 were flooded. Footage published by the Emergencies Ministry showed people wading through neck-high waters, rescuing stranded dogs and travelling along flooded roads in boats and canoes.
State news agency Tass reported that six adults and three children had been admitted to hospital in Orsk, but their condition was not life-threatening.
President Vladimir Putin ordered Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov to fly to the region. The Kremlin said yesterday that flooding was now also inevitable in the Urals region of Kurgan and the Siberian region of Tyumen.