State media in Laos says several people are dead and hundreds missing after a dam wall collapsed in the country's south, sending millions of tons of water into surrounding villages.
The Xenamnoy dam in Attapeu province, 550 kilometres south of the capital Vientiane, was reportedly built to hold 1 billion tons of water, and is 1.6 kilometres wide.
A volunteer emergency organisation, Vientiane Rescue, said the dam wall broke last night after heavy monsoonal rains.
Reports on one media site said millions of tons of water had inundated surrounding land, washing away villages and homes.
Photos on an expat site on Facebook show nearby residents on the roofs of houses as the floodwaters threaten to submerge their homes altogether.
Vientiane Rescue said it was sending a team of volunteers to respond to the disaster and help evacuate people stranded on rooves and higher ground.
Only yesterday the Xepian Xenamnoy company warned the dam was dangerously unsafe because of overflows from the recent rains, and said it was planning to release 5,000 million litres of water.
It urged residents to evacuate low-lying areas immediately.
It is unclear whether the ensuing floodwater was deliberately released or caused by the wall's collapse.
Vientiane Rescue said it was too early to know how many people have died in villages downstream from the dam.
The dam's management is yet to comment.
Last year, another dam burst in the Xaysomboun province north of the capital Vientiane, which flooded surrounding villages.
