Members of the Russian Emergencies Ministry evacuate people during a rescue operation in the area affected by heavy floods in Irkutsk, Russia, in this handout photo released on July 2 by Russian Emergencies Ministry.

MOSCOW, July 2 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people were killed and 13 missing in a flood in the southeast Siberian region of Irkutsk in Russian, TASS news agency Tuesday quoted regional governor Sergei Levchenko as saying on his Instagram page.

According to a statement by the Irkutsk regional division of the emergencies ministry, since June 25, 96 settlements of the region were flooded, including 10,097 residential houses inhabited by 32,798 people, among which 7,938 were children. Medical and obstetric centers, schools and kindergartens were also impacted.

The statement said that 2,563 people, including 574 children, had been evacuated from the flooded territories to temporary accommodation centers, or to relatives or acquaintances.

A total of 1,303 people sought medical help, of which 201 people including 41 children were hospitalized mainly with hypothermia, it said.

The flood in the Irkutsk region, where the state of emergency has been declared, began at the end of June with the water level in the local Iya river rising by almost 7 meters above the critical level.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on Saturday on the flood and instructed relevant government bodies to provide urgent aid to local residents and promptly restore power and other infrastructure, including communication, transport, health care and education facilities.

More than 1,410 people, 287 pieces of equipment, 63 boats and four aircrafts were involved in the rescue operation in the Irkutsk region on Monday, the ministry said.