Moscow: Severe flooding in Russia left some 18,000 homes submerged on Thursday, as the Tobol River in the region near the Kazakh border threatened to rise to record levels.
A further 1,700 houses flooded since yesterday, TASS state news agency reported, citing the authorities. Thousands of people have been evacuated in recent days.
The Orenburg region south of the Ural mountains, and the Kurgan area of Siberia are worst affected by the disastrous flooding near its southern border with Kazakhstan.
In Kurgan, the regional capital, the Tobol River rose 1.5 metres within the space of a day.
Kurgan is bracing for record levels of flooding, Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov said.
water levels are also rising in the nearby Tyumen region of Siberia, Kurenkov said. Some 94 villages, home to 34,000 people, are in danger of being flooded. The authorities brought 1,500 people to safety in Tyumen on Thursday. (DPA)
