Remarkable tale of survival for animal as it dragged limp body 11km back towards home leaving trail of blood behind him.

Defences were breached in Komsomolsk-on-Amur engulfing several villages, as forced evacuation rise.

Emergencies minister Vladimir Puchkov vows: 'We will defend both the city and the factories'.

The swollen Amur River reached a depth of 910 cm near Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Sunday, with fears it could hit 940cm. 

More than 20,000 residents were moved as rivers burst their banks with forecasts of worsening flooding later this week.

From the Urals to Pacific people this week joined the rest of Russia in marking the massacre in which 334 were killed. 

Druzhok was rescued once but swam back to do his duty on the doorstep of the waterlogged house in Eastern Russia.

Flight on Wednesday aborted two and a half minutes before blast-off as President Vladimir Putin watched at spaceport.

The second largest city of the Russian Far East faces nervous hours and days to see if its dikes hold back the deluge.