At least 1,000 people were evacuated on Monday after a flood inundated half of a town in Russia's Far Eastern Yakutia region, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Most of the evacuees in the town of Srednekolymsk, which has 3,500 inhabitants, had moved to homes of their relatives or acquaintances, and approximately 150 people were being sheltered at three evacuation centers.

Water from the Kolyma River has reached roofs of houses built in low lands in Srednekolymsk.

Forecasts said the situation was unlikely to improve in the town, which had not experienced such a devastating flood for decades.