Seven people have been found dead in Kazakhstan as floods caused by abrupt warm weather that led to a massive snowmelt continue to wreak havoc across the country and in southern Russia.
Kazakh Deputy Interior Miniter Marat Qozhaev said on April 18 that the seven dead were from the region of Atyrau, while two more people remain missing in the northeastern region of Abai.
"Rescue teams continue to look for the two missing in the Abai region. Investigations were launched into the death of seven individuals," Qozhaev said.
The overall death toll from the floods remains unclear as accounts from residents in some towns and villages over casualties have differed from what officials say.
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Kazakhs Prepare For Second Wave As Central Asia, Russia Struggle With Floods
Kazakhstan's Emergencies Ministry said four people died in the town of Qulsary in the Atyrau region and another two men went missing when they tried to reach their house hit by the floods in the Abai region.
Two children also died in the northwestern region of Aqtobe, but officials have insisted their deaths were not linked to the floods.
"We thought that just like last year, the water would enter the village streets and then recede. No one expected it to happen like this," said Aray Aitkaliyeva, who lives in the village of Qorzhyn in the West Kazakhstan region.
Frustration over the preparations and response to the floods has boiled over in some parts of the country, with authorities meeting criticism with a heavy hand.
On April 17, Qairat Musabaev, a resident of the northern region of Qostanai, was released from jail after serving a 10-day sentence for his online criticism of President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev and his government for what he called "failing" to prevent the dire consequences of the floods.
The 39-year-old was found guilty of distributing "ungrounded information" after he placed a video statement on the Internet accusing the government of "making us cold in winter, unable to deal with wildfires in summer, and letting us drown in the spring."
In Pavlodar, another region in of Kazakhstan's north, 57-year-old Aqylbek Temirghalinov was released from jail on April 17 after serving six days for publicly criticizing the government for failing to properly deal with the floods.
In the south of neighboring Russia, the situation is just as dire, with water levels in rivers continuing to rise in the regions of Kurgan, Orenburg, Tomsk, Khabarovsk Krai, and the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Media reports on April 18 quoted relatives of residents in the region of Orenburg as saying that police had found the bodies of an 81-year-old woman and her 49-year-old son in the city of Orsk, bringing the official number of people killed by the floods in the region to at least seven.
According to the latest official data provided by Russian officials, the number of houses affected by the floods increased by 1,700 in the last 24 hours, putting the total number of houses under the water at almost 18,000.