Rescuers were on Tuesday working to save dozens of people stranded on rooftops or trapped in their houses in Istanbul as floods triggered by torrential rains left parts of Turkey’s largest city under water, media reported.
Two streams in the districts of Alibeykoy and Esenler in the city’s European quarter burst their banks following rain that meteorological services say was the heaviest to hit the city in a decade.
The water level has reached up to 2m in these two districts, forcing some inhabitants to leave their houses in a hurry and take to rooftops, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Footage broadcast on the NTV and CNN-Turk news channels showed cars being carried away by flood waters and a crying mother hugging her two children on the balcony of her two-storey house as the waters raced down her street.
City authorities issued a flood alert at the weekend and decided to evacuate about 200 houses in Alibeykoy close to the bed of the stream, but some inhabitants refused to leave their lodgings.
Rescuers, accompanied by police officers, were using inflatable, motorised dinghies on Tuesday to reach inundated houses and force out occupants who had refused to leave, CNN-Turk said.
More than 2 500 flats and offices have been hit by flood waters and several roads have become inaccessible since Monday as the rain poured down on Istanbul.
Meteorology services say the precipitation is expected to continue until late on Wednesday.
Istanbul and its 12-million inhabitants are especially vulnerable to flooding due to poor and dilapidated infrastructure.
Last week, three children from the same family drowned when their basement apartment flooded during heavy rains. — Sapa-AFP