MOSCOW: A major flood in the city of Orsk that forced several thousand people to evacuate after a dam burst has created a “critical” situation, Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov said on Sunday. “A critical situation has developed in the city of Orsk” in the southern Urals close to the border with Kazakhstan, he said from the city of 200,000 people. More than 4,500 homes have been flooded and more than 4,000 people evacuated from Orsk to temporary housing centers, Kurenkov said.

Images diffused on the Telegram social media channel showed the minister on a small boat surrounded by members of the emergency services. Torrential rain caused the dam in the Orenburg region to burst on Friday night. Authorities have opened a criminal case for “negligence and violation of construction safety rules” over the burst dam, which was built in 2014.

They have warned of a dangerous water level on the Ural river in the main city of Orenburg. It has been classed a “federal emergency” with reinforcements sent to the region and extra funds released to deal with the urgent situation. Melting ice at this time of year has exacerbated the situation. The dam was built to manage a 5.5-m water level in the Ural river but that has swelled to nine meters.—AFP

The mayor of Orenburg, Sergei Salmin, has warned the city of half a million people that they too may be forced to evacuate their homes. “The situation remains critical. The water is arriving and in the coming days it’s level will only rise,” Salmin wrote on Telegram, adding that the water level had risen 28 centimetres since the previous day.

Weather authorities believe it will reach a peak level on Wednesday. Neighbouring Kazakhstan has also been affected by the floods with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev saying they were one of the country’s worst natural disasters in 80 years. Several regions in the Urals and western Siberia have been affected by floods since the start of spring. – AFP