Two Die And Thousands Left Homeless After Flooding Hits Russia's Dagestan

MOSCOW, April 6 (Bernama-dpa) -- A woman and her daughter died, and 4,000 people were evacuated after a dam wall broke in Russia's Dagestan republic following heavy rains, according to the Civil Protection Ministry on Monday, reported German Press Agency (dpa).

The bodies of the woman and her daughter were found, while others remain missing, after around 2,000 homes were flooded in the Derbent region on the Caspian Sea.

Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, has also been hit by flooding, with apartment blocks threatened with collapse, according to regional news website Golos Dagestana (Voice of Dagestan).

Video clips on social media showed entire buildings sinking beneath the water, along with a collapsed bridge on the Kavkaz route, which is of strategic significance to the region.

Regional authorities have set up emergency shelters, and helicopters are being deployed.

The ministry said that further rain is expected in the region, with localised cloudbursts and winds gusting up to 120 kilometres per hour. Landslides are also possible, it added.

Heavy rains have hit the North Caucasus region since the end of March.

Flooding of power substations has led to outages in almost 20 districts in Dagestan.

A state of emergency has been declared in Makhachkala, Khasavyurt, Kaspiysk and Derbent.

Flooding at the end of March led to more than 3,300 people being evacuated, with reports of 3,500 flooded homes.

At the time, authorities estimated the damage at the equivalent of US$50 million, but the figure is now likely to be much higher.

-- BERNAMA-dpa