At least 31 people have been killed in flash floods in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, which has left cars and trucks stranded across highways after the heaviest rain in the region in 80 years.
The dead included seven women who drowned in a minibus taking them to work on Wednesday, the Anatolian news agency said.
The dead included seven women who drowned in a minibus taking them to work on Wednesday, the Anatolian news agency said.
- "We are saddened by the loss of lives. There are still some people missing and we are searching for them," Mustafa Demir, Turkey's procurement minister, said on Wednesday. "There is huge damage to infrastructure."
- Sources told Al Jazeera that 28 people were killed in two days, including 20 on Wednesday.
- Muammer Guler, Istanbul's governor, said more than 20 people were also injured in floods on Wednesday, and added heavy rains were expected to continue throughout the week.
- Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Istanbul, said the poorer members of the city's community were the most affected by the flooding.
- Waters are reported to have risen by more than a metre-high in Istanbul's Ikitelli district, with motorists climbing on top of their vehicles waiting to be rescued.
- Hikmet Cakmak, Istanbul's deputy governor, described the scene at Ikitelli as a "disaster" and said four helicopters and eight boats were sent to help
- the stranded motorists.
- Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, is due to travel to Istanbul on Wednesday to witness the damage.
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