IRKUTSK, June 28. /TASS/. More than 2,300 houses were flooded due to heavy rains in Russia’s southeastern Siberian region of Irkutsk, the regional government said in a statement on Friday.

"As of 7:00 local time (02:00 Moscow time) a total of 2,392 houses, where 5,955 people (1,466 of them children) live, as well as four social infrastructure objects were inundated," the statement reads.

A total of 16 stretches of car roads and 13 bridges were flooded, two of them on the R-255 ‘Siberia’ federal highway.

A state of emergency was declared in the region.

Rescuers and municipal authorities started to evacuate residents from the zone of the disaster. As of Thursday morning, 654 people, including 146 children, were evacuated. A total of 17 temporary shelters with the capacity of over 6,500 have been set up. So far, only 92 people have been lodged there, the rest are staying with their relatives and friends.