BARNAUL, May 31 /ITAR-TASS/. Nearly 4,000 residential houses are flooded in Siberia, with over 7,600 people evacuated from dangerous areas, the head of the National Crisis Situation Management Center under Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, Oleg Voronov, told Itar-Tass.

Since May 29, torrential rains have raised the water level in rivers, which resulted in partial flooding of inhabited localities in the republics of Khakassia, Altai, Tuva and the Altai Territory.

“As of 06:00 Moscow Time, 3,967 residential houses with the population of over 9,000 people, including more than 2,000 children, remain flooded in 18 municipal entities,” Voronov said. Over the past 24 hours, the number of flooded houses grew by nearly 3,000. Some 5,000 household plots are covered with water. Floods have destroyed bridges and disrupted power supplies in several inhabited localities.

Altai Territory authorities said two people are believed to have died in the flood and two are missing. An emergency situation regime has been imposed in the Altai Territory due to the floods, which were caused by excessive precipitation, when a monthly rainfall was registered over a period of just four days. Twelve bridges, seven for cars and five for pedestrians, have been destroyed or damaged in the region. Transport links with 11 inhabited localities have been disrupted.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov urged residents to follow instructions of the Emergencies Ministry and local authorities. Overall, some 2,000 people and over 630 units of equipment, including nine Emergencies Ministry aircraft and a few dozen boats, are used in the effort to fight the floods in Siberian regions.