Pope Francis on Wednesday (April 10) expressed his sympathy to Kazakhstan where more than 96,000 people have been evacuated since the start of floods which affected its western, northern, central, and eastern regions.

Floods also gripped cities and towns across Russia after Europe's third-longest river burst its banks, forcing over 100,000 people to evacuate and swamping parts of the Russian city of Orenburg.

Russia said 10,500 houses were flooded across 37 regions, most in the Orenburg region. Upstream on the Ural, which flows into Kazakhstan, floodwaters burst through an embankment dam in the city of Orsk.

In Kazakhstan, people worked through the night to build up dykes and strengthen embankments. - Report from Reuters