Flash floods in Turkey kill at least 10 people

Source: Al-Monitor: The Pulse of The Middle East

ISTANBUL — Floods in Turkey, including the country’s largest metropolis Istanbul, have left at least 10 people dead and injured more than a dozen as of Wednesday as torrential rains swept across the country.

Flash floods killed at least two people and injured more than a dozen in Istanbul late Tuesday, raising Turkey’s death toll from flooding this week to at least 10 as torrential rains swept across the country.

The downpour started late on Tuesday local time, causing flooding in several districts of Istanbul. Two people died and 31 more were injured, Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Wednesday. The wounded were taken to hospitals.  

Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said up to 130 liters per square meter of rain fell over a few hours. Several subway stations and a hospital’s first floor were inundated by floodwater.

Many businesses and households were damaged. Yerlikaya said that damage assessment in the Istanbul districts had started and that affected households would receive aid of 15,000 liras ($560) each.

On Tuesday, flooding swept away a vacation rental in Turkey’s Kirklareli province near the Bulgarian border, killing five, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu reported. Emergency workers are scrambling to reach another person who was reported missing.

Following Tuesday’s floods, Turkey’s overall death toll from the floods this week has risen to 10. On Monday, flooding in Turkey’s central Anatolian provinces of Aksaray and Nevsehir left at least three people dead, according to Anadolu.

As the rising water threatened residential areas, Turkey’s disaster management agency AFAD said Monday, floods forced hundreds of people to evacuate in Nevsehir, Aksaray and Black Sea coastal province of Samsun where people used small boats to navigate the streets.

Emergency workers are still searching for a three-month-old baby who was swept out of her mother’s arms as they were trapped in a submerged vehicle in Nevsehir on Monday, according to the country’s private Demiroren News Agency. 

The torrential downpour came after Turkey registered record high summer temperatures, which fueled wildfires across the country.

The floods also hit neighboring Greece and Bulgaria this week. In central Greece, one person died and four people were missing, local media outlets reported.

The original article: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/09/flash-floods-turkey-kill-least-10-people belongs to Al-Monitor: The Pulse of The Middle East .