ALMATY, Kazakhstan, April 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Kazakhstan said on Tuesday it had evacuated some 16,000 people after the worst flooding to hit the Central Asian country in three decades.

Waters are set to rise further as snow melts across the vast Kazakh steppe, the country's meteorological agency has warned.

"Rescue operations are continuing and around 16,000 people, including 6,000 children, have already been evacuated," Kazakhstan's emergency situations ministry said in a post on Telegram.

It described the situation as "complicated" in five regions in the north and east, on the border with Russia, and said road links had been cut off to 50 settlements.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev publicly reprimanded government officials on Monday for being unprepared for the floods, which he said were the worst in at least 30 years.

"Forecasting work was completely absent, due to a lack of specialists.

"The consequences and scale of the disaster, even taking into account the weather conditions, could have been lower if local leaders had carried out planned flood control measures," Tokayev told a government meeting.

Areas never before affected were being affected by the rising waters, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said on Tuesday.

Hee urged citizens not to resist calls to evacuate.

As well as footage of people being rescued, the emergencies ministry published videos showing camels being evacuated in rubber dinghies after becoming trapped by the rising waters.