Investigators yesterday launched a probe into possible negligence after devastating flash floods in southern Russia killed at least 171 people and President Vladimir Putin demanded officials explain the disaster.

As emergency workers pulled more bodies from the flood waters around Krymsk, the worst-hit district in the southern Krasnodar region, angry survivors insisted they had not received any warning from the authorities.

Mr Putin demanded that officials explain the massive death toll and personally inspected the worst-hit areas on Saturday evening, the first major disaster since he came back to the Kremlin for a third term in May.

The Russian strongman compared the force of the water – which trapped people in their homes at night, ripped up pavements and traffic lights and flooded rail tracks – to a “tsunami” and said that the top investigator would conduct a probe to see “who acted how.”

He also quickly moved to address concerns that the deluge might have been caused by an emergency opening of sluice gates at a local reservoir, with the Kremlin issuing a statement that Putin had been told it was not the cause of the flooding.

At least 171 people died in the disaster, including 12 in the port of Novorossiisk and the popular Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik where five were electrocuted, a police official with the emergency task force in Moscow said. Police said earlier 11 were killed in those two cities.

The worst hit area was a district around Krymsk, a town of around 57,000 where rescue teams have found 159 bodies including three children, police said. Most of the victims were pensioners, many caught by the floods in their sleep.

Krymsk is about 200 kilometres northwest of the Black Sea resort of Sochi where Russia will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

Flash floods frequently batter towns along the picturesque Black Sea coast during seasonal rains in the Caucasus mountains, but authorities say the current disaster is unprecedented.

Officials have been unable to explain the massive death toll, saying only the floods were caused by torrential rains over the past few days and caught many people unawares. The force of the water was so ferocious that many residents said they suspected the floods were caused by a release of water at a local reservoir on the Neberdzhai River.