As intensive relief operations continue in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Region, devastated by outrageous floods, the death toll keeps climbing, having reached the number of 144 people by Sunday morning, RIA Novosti reports.
Russia’s worst floods in decades ravaged several cities and residential areas this week in the Krasnodar Region, including Gelendzhik and Novorossiysk as well as Krymsk, a town with the population of 57,000 people, located some 87 kilometers (54 miles) from Krasnodar.
“As of 6:00 a.m. Moscow time [2:00 a.m. GMT] 144 people were killed… There were also 205 people, including 48 children, who asked for medical assistance,” a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said, adding that 77 more people were hospitalized.
The Russian Interior Ministry said earlier that policemen involved in relief operations in the worst-hit town of Krymsk had rescued 150 children.
“Up to 600 policemen are working in Krymsk and they have rescued some 300 people, including 150 children,” the statement from the ministry said.
At least 130 people were killed by the disaster in the Krymsk district that was swept by flooding late on Friday night, when most of the people were asleep.
