Twenty feared dead as two dams burst

Thousands of people were moved out of threatened areas after two dams burst in Kazakhstan's Aksuisky district north of the business capital, Almaty. A village was flooded and some 3,000 people were taken to a nearby town.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazabayev with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev

Russian news agency Interfax reports that at least 20 people were killed and 60 homes washed away in raging flood waters. Local officials were unable to confirm the figures.

In a separate incident, a dam washed away a bridge in the nearby Karatalsky district after heavy snowfall melted. The flooding forced 820 people to take shelter in a village school.

Flooding is common in Kazakhstan, a vast country of mountains and steppe bordering Russia and China. The run-off from its soaring southern peaks puts pressure on the country's ageing dam system.