The Russian city of Orenburg, near the Kazakh border, braced on Monday for flooding not seen in decades, as
officials evacuated locals to escape rising rivers in the Urals and western Siberia.
Moscow declared a federal emergency on Sunday over floods in the Orenburg region, where the Ural river left much of the city of Orsk covered in water, forcing thousands to leave their homes, reports AFP.
The river is now reaching dangerous levels in the regional capital of Orenburg, a city of 550,000 people.
The Kremlin has also warned of "inevitable" floods in western Siberia's Kurgan and Tyumen regions.
Thousands of people have already been evacuated from flooded areas. The Kremlin said on Monday that over 10,000 residential buildings had been flooded, mostly in the Urals, Volga area and western Siberia. Emergency services warned of a "rise in air temperature, active snow melting and the overflow of rivers".
Much of the city of Orsk was under water after torrential rain caused a nearby dam to burst.
Orenburg region authorities said that while the Ural river "went down by nine centimetres (3.5 inches)" in Orsk, water levels in the city of Orenburg were rising fast.
"In Orenburg, in a day there was a rise by 16 centimetres to 872 centimetres," in the water level, the regional government said. Its mayor, Sergei Salmin, told Russian television that the city "has not seen so much water" in decades. "The highest (water) mark was in 1942. That was 946 centimetres," Salmin said. "Since then there have been no floods. This is unprecedented."
The Kremlin has said President Vladimir Putin is being briefed on areas affected by "nature anomalies" in real time.
On Monday, it said Putin ordered a government commission to be established on the floods.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
