Rescuers have evacuated thousands of people from a southern Russian region after a dam partially burst, and was on the verge of complete rupture.
Workers in inflatable rafts ferried people to higher ground on April 6, as floodwaters from the Ural River rose in the Orenburg region, including the city of Orsk.
The TASS state news agency reported that the dam had completely collapsed on April 6, but local officials later denied the report.
Authorities said three bodies had been recovered from the flooded region, though it wasn't clear if the deaths were all directly related to the flooding.
The city of Orsk is the second-largest in the Orenburg region, with around 189,000 residents.
The regional prosecutor's office said it had opened a criminal investigation into the dam collapse, saying it may have been caused by improper maintenance.
In recent weeks, a host of communities in southern parts of Russia's Siberian and Ural Mountains regions have been swamped by floodwaters, due mainly to spring snow melt and unseasonably high temperatures.
Some parts of Kazakhstan, which Orenburg borders, have also suffered catastrophic flooding, with more than 16,000 people being evacuated from various communities in northern parts of the country.
In a televised statement on April 6, President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev called the floods the largest natural disaster to hit the country over the past 80 years