Moscow, Jul 8 (IANS/RIA Novosti): President Vladimir Putin visited Russia's southern town of Krymsk, the worst affected area by floods that hit Krasnodar region Saturday, killing over 100 people overnight.

Putin held an urgent meeting with the representatives of the all services involved in search operation and tackling the consequences of the disaster. He then left for Gelendzhik, the Black Sea resort city, which has also been affected by floods.

Over 100 people are reported to be killed in Russia's worst in decades floods that have affected several cities and residential areas in Krasnodar region, including Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk as well as Krymsk, a town with a population of 57,000 people, located some 87 km from Krasnodar.

Apart from Putin, who undertook a surveillance flight above the flooded territories, several ministers and the head of the investigation committee, Alexander Bastrykin, also visited the affected areas.

The abruptness and ferociousness of the flood triggered rumours that the disaster was caused by negligence of the local authorities who had allegedly opened the Neberdzhayevsk reservoir to prevent it from overfilling because of the heavy rains.

The claims were echoed by the statement from Russia's Yabloko party, whose head Sergei Mitrokhin said Saturday that it was the emergency sluice, an artificial water channel, opening system at the reservoir which caused the tragedy.

The Krasnodar region's authorities, however, rubbished the allegations and called them "an absolute nonsense".