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The deluge of meltwater overwhelmed swathes of the Ural Mountains, western Siberia and areas of Kazakhstan close to rivers such as the Ural and Tobol, prompting the order to evacuate more than 100,000 people by late Wednesday. Authorities said the situation was dangerous at Orenburg, where water levels in the Ural River, Europe's third-longest, had risen 50 centimetres (20 inches) by early Wednesday, just hours after hitting the critical level of 9.3 metres (30 feet) late on Tuesday. "The night was restless," RIA state news agency citied Orenburg's First Deputy Mayor Alexei Kudinov as saying.