Russia declares flood-hit Orenburg region a federal emergency with other regions under threat

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s government declared the situation in flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal emergency on Sunday, with preparations for possible flooding underway in three other regions, state media reported.

The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people, including 885 children, to evacuate in the Orenburg region, the regional government said. State news agency Tass said that a further 2,000 homes were flooded, bringing the total to nearly 6,300 in the region.

The total damage from the flood in the Orenburg region is estimated to amount to around 21 billion rubles ($227 million), the regional government said Sunday.

Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov arrived in Orsk — one of the most hard-hit cities — on Sunday to supervise rescue operations.

“I propose classifying the situation in the Orenburg region as a federal emergency and establishing a federal level of response,” the minister said, according to RIA Novosti. The move means federal assistance and coordination can supplement state and local efforts.

Orsk, less than 20 kilometers (less than 13 miles) north of the border with Kazakhstan, suffered the brunt of the floods that caused a dam to break on Friday, according to Orsk Mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. By Sunday morning, 4,500 residential buildings in the city of 200,000 were flooded and evacuation efforts were still ongoing, Tass said.

A criminal probe has been launched to investigate suspected construction violations that may have caused the dam to break. Local authorities said the dam could withstand water levels up to 5.5 meters (nearly 18 feet). On Saturday morning, the water level reached about 9.3 meters (30.51 feet) and rising, Kozupitsa said. On Sunday, the level in Orsk reached 9.7 meters (31.82 feet), according to Russia's water level information site AllRivers.

Authorities in Orsk reported that four people had died, but said their deaths were unrelated to the flooding.

Officials in the regional capital, also called Orenburg, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) away from Orsk, wrote on Telegram Sunday that the situation in the city was getting worse, as water levels increased by 28 centimeters (11 inches) compared with the previous day. Over 1,300 homes flooded and 428 people were evacuated, they said.

Footage from Orsk and Orenburg showed water covering the streets dotted with single-story houses.

The designation of the situation as a federal emergency reflects the risk of flooding beyond the Orenburg region. Russia's Ministry for Emergency Situations evacuated around 820 people in the neighboring Samara region, the ministry's regional directorate said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken with Kurenkov, as well as the heads of the Kurgan and Tyumen regions, located in the Ural Mountains area, to discuss the situation and “the need ... for early adoption of measures to assist people and their possible evacuation.”

Preventative evacuation began Sunday in two districts of the Kurgan region, the regional department of Emergency Situations Ministry wrote on Telegram.

The Ural River, about 2,428 kilometers (1,509 miles) long, flows from the southern section of the Urals into the north end of the Caspian Sea, through Russia and Kazakhstan.

In this grab taken from a video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Sunday, April 7, 2024, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexnader Kurenkov, center left, back to a camera, stands on a boat observing water levels, in Orsk, Russia. State media say Russia's government has declared the situation in flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal emergency. The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people, including over 800 children, to evacuate, the regional government said. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this grab taken from a video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Sunday, April 7, 2024,Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexnader Kurenkov, right speaks to a woman as emergency workers evacuate local residents with their pets after part of a dam burst causing flooding, in Orsk, Russia. State media say Russia’s government has declared the situation in flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal emergency. The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people, including over 800 children, to evacuate, the regional government said. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this grab taken from a video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Sunday, April 7, 2024, an emergency worker carries belongings of people during an evacuation of local residents after part of a dam burst causing flooding, in Orsk, Russia. State media say Russia's government has declared the situation in flood-hit areas in the Orenburg region a federal emergency. The floods, caused by rising water levels in the Ural River, forced over 4,000 people, including over 800 children, to evacuate, the regional government said. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this image taken from a video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Saturday, April 6, 2024, emergency workers evacuate local residents with their pets after a part of a dam burst causing flooding, in Orsk, Russia. Floods hit a city in the Ural Mountains areas after a river dam burst there, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people, local authorities said. The dam breach in Orsk, a city less than 20 kilometers north of Russia's border with Kazakhstan, occurred on Friday night, according to Orsk mayor Vasily Kozupitsa. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, in the latest attack on elected officials that raises concern over rising political violence in Germany.

Frankziska Giffey, the city's top economic official, a former mayor and an ex-federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard device, police said.

Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said, adding they were searching for the perpetrator.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.

"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” said Wegner, according to German news agency dpa. “We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy.”

Giffey wrote on Instagram that "we live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion ... and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form.”

“They are a transgression of boundaries that we as a society must resolutely oppose,” she said.

Last week, a candidate from the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was beaten up in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning for next month's election for the European Parliament and had to undergo surgery.

Police detained four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, and said that the same group had apparently attacked a Greens party worker minutes before they attacked Matthias Ecke. At least one of the teens is said to be linked to far-right groups, security officials said.

Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden, dpa reported.

The incidents have raised political tensions in Germany.

Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.

Germany's federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said after a meeting of the country's 16 state interior ministers that possible measures included tightening Germany’s criminal law in order to "punish anti-democratic acts more severely,”

Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where Scholz’s government is deeply unpopular. The Interior Ministry in the state of Saxony said it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives.

Mainstream parties have accused the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and of fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.

Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in the European polls as well as in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.

FILE - Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey attends a commemoration for homosexual victims of the Holocaust, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)