State of emergency in Sochi after heavy rain

Floods and mudslides caused by heavy rain have prompted Russian authorities to introduce a state of emergency in Sochi, the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics, AP reported. The Emergency Situations Ministry said Wednesday that about 1,800 of its personnel were involved in cleaning up the streets and pumping out water after the torrential rain caused local rivers to overfill and flood some sections of highways and a few residential areas in the Black Sea resort. The ministry said the water level in the city's rivers was receding. Traffic in the city has returned to normal. The city's airport and its railway station were functioning normally. In the village of Mirny, where 10 houses were affected by flooding, emergency teams were deployed to pump out water.