Kherson residents flee under artillery fire after collapsed Kakhovka dam floods homes

Oleksandra walks around her house on a flooded street, after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kherson, Ukraine June 6, 2023. REUTERS/Alina Smutko

KHERSON, Ukraine (Reuters) - Distraught residents of Ukraine's Kherson evacuated their homes under artillery fire on Tuesday after they were flooded by the rupture of a vast dam upstream in a disaster that Kyiv and Moscow have blamed on each other.

Some residents cried as they packed belongings into cars. A meteorologist measuring the river level at the scene told Reuters the water was 3.5 metres (11.5 ft) higher than on Monday, before the dam was destroyed.