MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Up to 1.5 million people in Dagestan were affected by large-scale floods caused by downpours, head of the region Sergey Melikov told President Vladimir Putin during a meeting devoted to the situation in the province.

"A total of 11 municipalities with up to 1.5 million citizens of the republic were placed into the emergency zone. At that, 6,229 people, including 1,300 children, were evacuated," he said.

Melikov said that the region had deployed 55 emergency shelters with a capacity of over 1,800 people, which hosted about 700 people. Other people hurt by the calamity found shelter with their relatives.

Dagestan continued work to eliminate the consequences of the downpours, which have prompted large-scale floods in several regions at the end of March and start of April.

The situation is difficult in the Makhachkala, Khasavyurt and Derbent regions, where dozens of houses, cars and household plots were flooded. The elements flushed away several bridges. The Emergencies Ministry said six people died in the floods. A regional state of emergency was introduced in Dagestan, while Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov told Putin that the emergency will be bumped up to the federal level.