A 50-foot-wide breach occurred Monday in a levee on the Missouri River near the Iowa-Missouri border, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The "full breach" occurred in about five minutes, the Corps said in a statement. It said it is the fourth in the area and "is just south of the previous three partial breaches." The break was in Atchison County, Missouri, just south of Hamburg, Iowa, it said.

A breach earlier this month prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people in the area as a precaution. No evacuations were occurring as a result of Monday's breach, officials said.

However, "people's safety is our number one concern, so we want to stress how important it is for the public to stay off these levees as we continue to assess the risk," Omaha Corps District Commander Col. Bob Ruch said in the statement.

State and local emergency management officials were notified, the Corps said, and are working closely with the Corps along with the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It was too early to determine the cause of the breach, the Corps said. But it follows weeks of high flows and record releases from dams in Montana and the Dakotas. Heavy rains and snow pack runoff could result in near-record flooding along parts of the Missouri this year, officials have said.

This year's flooding is putting levees to the test along much of the 1,700 miles of the Missouri. Temporary levees are being built in several locations.