Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg, near the border with Kazakhstan, announced a mass evacuation on Friday after the water level in the Ural River rose further, threatening the region with further flooding, the Associated Press and Reuters reported, citing BTA.
Orenburg Mayor Sergey Salmin called on residents in a statement in “Telegram” to evacuate urgently while sirens sounded in the city.
"This is not a teaching", Salmin wrote in "Telegram". "The flood situation in Orenburg is extremely dangerous. In the last 10 hours, the water level in the Ural River has risen by 40 centimeters and is currently 11.43 meters. These values are dangerous," he warned.
Football from the city showed entire neighborhoods submerged in water.
The flood hit the region, located about 1,200 km southeast of the capital Moscow, on the border with Kazakhstan, after last week in the city of Orsk, a dam broke under the pressure of the incoming waters. The authorities defined the situation in the region as an emergency of federal importance.
Nearly 12,000 houses were flooded and over 13,000 people were evacuated.
The Ural River is 2428 km long. It originates in the southern part of the Ural Mountains, passes through Russia and Kazakhstan and flows into the northern end of the Caspian Sea.
In another Russian region - Kurgan, the water level is also rising, adds Reuters. The village of Kaminskoe in the Kurgan region was evacuated on Friday morning after the water level there rose by 1.4 m. Kaminskoe is located along the Tobol River, which also passes through the regional center Kurgan - a city with a population of 300,000.
In neighboring Kazakhstan, authorities said 100,000 people had been evacuated so far.