50 dead in southern Russia floods

[July 07, 2012]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Emergency officials in southern Russia's Krasnodar region say 50 people are dead in flooding after torrential rains.

Igor Zhelyabin, a spokesman for the region's Emergencies Ministry, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying 39 of the deaths in rain that began Friday night were in the area of the city of Krimsk, about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) south of Moscow.

State news agency RIA Novosti said five people died of electrical shock in the Black Sea coastal city of Gelendzhik after a transformer fell into the water. Video on Russian television showed waist-high muddy water coursing through that city's streets and homes.

As of 10 a.m. Saturday, more than 280 millimeters (11 inches) of rain had fallen in Gelendzhik since the previous evening, the state meteorological service said.

[Associated Press]

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