The death toll from flooding which ravaged war-torn Chechnya and the rest of Russia's North Caucasus region has risen to 68, officials said today, with more than 86,000 people made homeless.
In a new hazard, health officials said there was an increased risk of infectious diseases in affected areas because the flooding had taken out sanitation systems and dead livestock were rotting in the streets.
Though earlier rescue workers had said the wet weather was letting up, there were reports that the flood water had started rising again in some places and that there was more stormy weather on the way.
Starting late last week, flooding resulting from torrential rainfall devastated nine of Russia's southern regions, where some 44,000 homes were flooded and more than 3,000 completely destroyed, emergency officials said.
Thirty-eight people are now reported dead in Stavropol territory, 10 in Karachayevo-Cherkesia, 16 in Krasnodar territory, three in North Ossetia and one in Kabardino-Balkaria.
The floods also wiped out highways, railroads and gas pipelines, demolishing more than 230 bridges and cutting some 110 towns and villages from electricity supply, according to official estimates.
AFP