Reports: Iran evacuates more towns facing major flooding

TEHRAN, Iran

Iranian state TV is reporting authorities have ordered the evacuation of four more towns in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, which is widely inundated with floods.

The Saturday report says rescue teams are taking residents to nearby shelters, including three army barracks.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told state TV that some 400,000 people are at risk out of the province’s population of some five-million.

Nine towns and scores of villages have been already evacuated as major flooding has recently hit the western half of the country, after years of drought.

There have been no reports of damage to the province’s petroleum facilities, which account for roughly 80 percent of Iran’s oil production.

Authorities have put the number of dead from countrywide flooding at 70 people.