Siberian city braces for new floods

Further flooding could hit Yakutsk

The Siberian city of Yakutsk is bracing itself for a second round of flooding, following inundations in the region that killed five people and left two others missing.

Yakutsk has already seen record water levels

And there is the added danger of an oil slick heading towards the city after flooding at the Lensk oil reservoir upstream.

Emergency services have been preparing the city's 200,000 inhabitants for mass evacuations - thousands have already left.

However, some people are refusing to leave their houses for fear of looting, taking refuge instead in their attics and on roofs.

The floods - the worst to hit Siberia for a century - were triggered by a spring thaw after a particularly harsh winter.

The waters rose to record levels on Tuesday morning, but subsided after bombs were used to blast away ice jams in the vast River Lena.

Bombs were used to break up the ice

Now local authorities have warned of another powerful current surging down the river that could swamp Yakutsk, which is 3,000 miles east of Moscow.

"We are expecting the wave to reach Yakutsk by 5pm local time (0700 GMT Wednesday)," said emergencies ministry spokeswoman Yekaterina Starkova.

Emergency preparations

Emergency workers in Yakutsk have been using heavy trucks to dump sand in dykes around residential areas.

Hospital patients who are able to walk are being sent home to prepare for the emergency, while others have been moved to higher floors.

City authorities have opened 35 evacuation centres with capacity for 20,000 people.

People in nearby villages have driven their livestock onto higher ground, but some cattle have drowned.

In one district of Yakutsk, where the water reached the windows of one-storey wooden houses, the mood was almost festive, as people huddled in boats and drank vodka.

In the city centre, rescue workers have been diving around in buses broadcasting flood warnings over loudspeakers. Schools and factories are closed and the sale of alcohol in shops and restaurants has been banned.

Wiped out

Floodwaters from the River Lena, Russia's fourth longest, last week devastated the town of Lensk. The five people killed died while trying to escape.

Thousands have been evacuated in Yakutsk

In Lensk thousands of people are homeless and 1,800 homes destroyed. Emergency officials there have set up camps, and are handing out bread, water and hot meals.

Though spring flooding happens every year in Russia, the current exceptional levels could devastate Yakutsk, which is built on a forest of mainly wooden stilts.

"What happened this year is basically what you would expect to see every 100 years," said Lev Kuchment of the Institute for Water Problems in Moscow.

Before the floods, scientists predicted the thaw of the permafrost resulting from climate change could destroy most of the city's buildings by 2030.