At least seven people have been killed and one is missing in torrential rainstorms and flooding in northwestern Turkey, according to Turkish officials.
Five of the victims were in the northwestern province of Kırklareli where holiday makers at a vacation site with bungalows were swept away by flash floods, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. Three of them were found dead by search and rescue teams in the early hours after the floods hit on Tuesday evening, while two were found dead on Wednesday. One of the vacationers is still missing, with teams working to locate them.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that a detention warrant has been issued for the owner of the vacation site on charges of negligent homicide after it was found that the bungalows were illegally built.
The other two victims were in İstanbul,where flash floods from torrential rains turned the streets into raging rivers on Tuesday evening, the İstanbul Governor’s Office said. At least 31 people were also injured.
It also said northern parts of İstanbul received 125 kilograms of rain per square meter.
The nighttime storm partially flooded a subway station and forced the evacuation of dozens of people from a city library, media reports said.
Television and social media images showed rushing waters sweeping away cars and city market stalls.
The rains followed a particularly dry summer that saw the reservoirs of the city of 16 million fall to nine-year lows.