Mariupol authorities are sounding the alarm about unsanitary conditions in the ravaged Ukrainian port city that they say pose a “deadly danger” to its remaining residents.

Mariupol City Council said on the messaging app Telegram that “deadly epidemics may break out in the city due to the lack of centralised water supply and sewerage, the decomposition of thousands of corpses under the rubble, a catastrophic shortage of drinking water and food”.

It said that the lives of 100,000 people who still remain in Mariupol, out of 450,000 pre-war residents, may be in danger, pointing to diseases like cholera and dysentery.

The Telegram post cited Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko as saying that “the invaders are not able to provide the remaining population with food, water and medicines, or are simply not interested in that”.

He said that “living conditions in the ruined Mariupol are now medieval” and that “an immediate and complete evacuation is needed”.