A volunteer from Gejukh suffered fatal injuries in Mamedkala.

A young resident of Dagestan who was helping residents of the flooded village of Mamedkala died in a Makhachkala hospital. He suffered a severe head injury while volunteering.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," approximately 1.5 million residents are in the zone of devastating floods in Dagestan. A federal state of emergency has been in effect in the region since April 9. The village of Mamedkala, where nearly 260 residential buildings and their gardens were flooded as a result of a dam breach, has become one of the hardest-hit settlements in Dagestan. Hundreds of volunteers have arrived there to assist local residents. It is from the volunteers that the victims primarily receive assistance, the villagers said.

19-year-old volunteer Artem Mikhrabov died on the evening of April 13 as a result of a severe traumatic brain injury sustained while assisting flood victims. The young man, who was rushed to a Makhachkala clinic by helicopter, "suffered brain damage incompatible with life," the Dagestan Ministry of Health reported on its Telegram channel.

From the very first days, Mikhrabov "was there for those who had lost the most basic necessities," wrote Israfil Israfilov, head of the regional control center. "He cleared rubble, supported people, and extended a helping hand," the official wrote on Telegram.

Artem Mikhrabov, a resident of Gedzhukh, went to help the victims in Mamedkala as soon as he learned of the village's flooding. Following his injury, he spent several days in a coma in the intensive care unit of the Vishnevsky Republican Clinical Hospital, according to the Dagestan News outlet.

Dagestani authorities have already promised to provide assistance to Mikhrabov's family. "Sergey Melikov instructed that assistance be provided to the family of the volunteer who died in Mamedkala," Interfax quoted the republic's head of state as saying.

The Caucasian Knot reported that six people had previously died in the flooding in Dagestan. Five of them died after a dam burst in the village of Mamedkala and its surrounding area: a pregnant 17-year-old local resident, a 12-year-old child, a five-year-old girl and her grandmother, as well as 70-year-old Aminat Musayeva, who had been missing for three days. Additionally, on April 5, in the village of Kirki in the Kaytag District, Kistaman Mazanova, a member of the local village council, died after a house was destroyed by a landslide. Authorities reported payments of one million rubles to the families of the victims.

Flooding caused by heavy rains has been ongoing in the North Caucasus since the end of March, and has become some of the most destructive in recent years. The disaster caused the greatest damage in Dagestan and Chechnya, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Spring Flooding in the North Caucasus - 2026".

The "Caucasian Knot" has compiled materials about flooding in the North Caucasus Federal District republics in the spring of 2026 on the thematic page "Flooding in the North Caucasus".