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AP
Updated at 2:55 am ET
Laotian media reports that 19 people have died and 49 are missing in southern Laos after the collapse of an unfinished hydroelectric dam, releasing a wall of 39, which flooded the villages downstream.
Many people are perched on the roofs to try to escape the floods after Monday's collapse of a dam that is part of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydroelectric project, in the province of Attapeu, southeast, near Cambodia
. District Governor Bounhome Phommasane said the operation was being deployed for survivors in the Vientiane Times, a state newspaper.
The newspaper, citing unofficial reports from the provincial government, said that about 19 people had been found dead and 49 were still missing.
With a moderate to heavy rain forecast, the governor says the flood level is expected to increase, adding to the many villages affected by the initial dam failure. The provincial authorities cited in the Times state that seven villages were affected
. The official Lao news agency (KPL) has acknowledged that "the disaster has caused several casualties, left hundreds of missing and more than 1300" />