BANGKOK (AP) — A hydroelectric dam collapsed in southeastern Laos, leaving an unknown number of people dead and hundreds missing, state media said Tuesday. The official Lao news agency KPL said the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam in Attapeu province collapsed Monday evening, releasing large amounts of water that swept away houses and made more than 6,600 people homeless. The $1.2bn (£915m) dam is part of a project by Xe-Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Company, a joint venture which is also known as PNPC. Image: The Red Cross said the disaster has 'caught everyone unawares' 
 
 The portion of the dam that collapsed on Monday is reported to be a "saddle dam", an auxiliary structure used to hold water beyond what is held by the main dam. A spokesman for the one of the companies involved in the project said heavy rain and flooding caused the collapse. Electricity from several hydroelectric dams provides a large share of Laos' export earnings, with Thailand being a major buyer. A number of companies are involved, including Thailand's Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, South Korea's Korea Western Power and the state-run Lao Holding State Enterprise. The dam was built to divert the Houay Makchanh, Xe-Namnoy and Xe-Pian rivers into reservoirs that feed into a 410-megawatt power plant designed to generate 1,879 gigawatts of power a year, with 90 percent of the power being exported to Thailand and the remaining 10 percent used locally. Boats have been brought in to help evacuate people as water levels rise, according to ABC Laos news, with reports the flash flooding has left more than 6,000 people homeless in six villages in the southeast Asian country.
– Hundreds of people are missing, more than 6,000 have been left homeless, and an unknown number are thought dead after a portion of a still-under-construction hydroelectric dam in Laos' Attapeu province reportedly collapsed Monday night, per the AP. The country's KPL news agency, via the BBC, reports that the collapse of an auxiliary dam attached to the main Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam led to flash floods in the southeastern Laos province, sending locals to the roofs of their houses and boats out to rescue survivors. The New York Times notes that 175 billion cubic feet of water gushed out and flooded the area; Sky News notes that's about the amount that would fill 2 million Olympic-size swimming pools. The dam, which was on schedule to open in 2019, is a joint project run by two South Korean companies, including SK Engineering and Construction, as well as Thai and Lao lenders. An SK E&C official quoted by the Yonhap news agency says a deluge of rain that's about three times more than usual had flooded the auxiliary dam. Yonhap says officials are still trying to figure out if the dam overflowed or simply gave way. The dam in Laos, one of Asia's most poverty-stricken nations, was set to bring in billions of dollars for the country by helping to generate electricity that would mostly be exported to Thailand.