Russians head home as floods ease

MOSCOW, Russia -- Thousands of people are returning home in an eastern Siberian town after flood waters subsided, emergency officials said.

The town of Lensk, which has a population of 26,000, is now free of water, according to Viktor Beltsov, a spokesman for the Ministry for Emergency Situations.

But flood waters in Yakutsk, capital of the region of Yakutia, are continuing to rise, though they have not reached a critical level, officials told the Associated Press news agency.

According to the ITAR-Tass agency, ice jams on the Lena River which caused flooding have broken apart.

More than 400 wooden houses were washed away in the Lensk flooding, said Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.

It means 2,000 people are homeless, while another 1,700 houses have been damaged, he said, according to AP.

ITAR-Tass said Sergei Shoigu, the minister for emergency situations, had left the region and returned to Moscow after the flooding in Lensk subsided.

Russian airplanes bombed ice floes blocking the Lena to release a build-up of water.

Bombs were dropped from planes and helicopters in two raids during Thursday night.

The annual flooding has affected thousands of homes across provincial Russia.

Many people have refused to leave their homes for fear of looting, and have remained camped out on upper floors or on roofs.

Warm spring weather is being blamed for record water levels as rapidly melting snow has caused major rivers to overflow.

At least one person has died in the flooding.