Iran has been hit by several weeks of unprecedented flooding across most of the usually arid country that has killed 70 people, according to the emergency services.

IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

On Monday, authorities were battling to prevent floods reaching Ahvaz, which is the capital of Khuzestan province and home to about 1.3 million people.

The advancing waters sparked fears that a hospital on the city’s northern outskirts would be submerged after the nearby Karkheh River burst its banks.

“Salamat hospital has been evacuated and all patients transferred to Golestan hospital on the orders of the crisis management authorities due to the risk of the hospital being flooded,” the head of Golestan hospital, Meysam Moazi, told ISNA.

The huge floods have forced authorities to release water from one of the largest dams in the area, which has left some of the cities downstream under threat.

A “significant amount” of floodwater from Karkheh started moving toward Ahvaz on Sunday, according to city mayor Mansour Katanbaf.

“We’ve been trying to manage the water … most of it has been diverted toward other channels and what’s left is being handled,” Katanbaf told ISNA.

Gholamreza Shariati, the provincial governor, told the official IRNA news agency on April 6 that six towns “must be evacuated as soon as possible” as the government releases water from major dams that are near overflowing.

Shariati said rescue teams were taking residents to nearby shelters, including three army barracks.

Iranian media reports said over 2,000 residents of the town of Hamidieh, near the provincial capital, Ahvaz, had been moved to army barracks.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli warned that up to 400,000 people in Khuzestan, where a state of emergency has been declared, could be exposed to the floods, IRNA reported.

Fazli said that everything is under control and urged the people to cooperate with the officials.

According to reports, Karkheh Dam has reached its full capacity and water is now overflowing and it is a threat to the villages and towns. Soosangerd is one of major towns which is now affected seriously with the flood.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of six new cities along the Karkheh river on Saturday as the situation neared “critical” status.

According to ISNA, a total of 210 villages along the river have been evacuated, 61 of which are now flooded.

Flooding swamped northeast Iran in mid-March before spreading to the west and southwest of the country later in the month.