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STORY: Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg called on thousands of residents to evacuate immediately on Friday (April 12) due to rapidly rising flood waters.

A historic deluge of melting snow has caused major rivers to burst their banks and has forced over 120,000 people from their homes in Russia's Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan.

Orenburg resident, Alexander Nadzhyonov.

"You can see the situation for yourselves. This is how high the water level got over the last three days. We never expected it to rise so high. We lifted all furniture up the chairs. But as you can see, it's all floating now. I don't think that this is it yet. It will all be rising still up to another meter perhaps. That's going to be critical. Everything we've worked for is gone."

Emergency workers said water levels in the Ural river were more than six and a half feet above what they regarded as a dangerous level.

Orenburg Governor Denis Pasler told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday nearly 12,000 homes had been flooded and if waters rose further about 19,000 more people would be in danger.

The village of Kaminskoye in the Kurgan region was also being evacuated on Friday morning after the water level there rose more than 4 feet (1.4 meters) overnight, Kurgan's regional governor Vadim Shumkov said.

He also said it could reach Kurgan in the coming days.

Kurgan is home to a key part of Russia's military-industrial complex, a giant factory that produces infantry fighting vehicles for the army.

There were no reports that the factory had so far been affected.