Floods killed 31 people in northwest Turkey after torrential rains hit the region from late Monday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday, quoting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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Photo taken on Sept. 9, 2009 shows vehicles damaged by flood in Istanbul, Turkey. Floods killed 31 people in northwest Turkey after torrential rains hit the region from late Monday, the semi-official Anatolia News Agency reported Wednesday, quoting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying. [Xinhua]
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Altogether 26 people died in floods in Istanbul province and five died in Tekirdag province, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.
Nine others were reported missing, he said, noting that the flood-hit region was faced with a big disaster.
Erdogan arrived Wednesday in the Disaster Coordination Center of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and offered condolences to the relatives of flood victims, said the agency.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Prime Ministry Crisis Management Center put the death toll from the floods at 29, saying five people died in Saray town of Tekirdag and 24 others were killed inIstanbul's districts of Catalca, Silivri and Ikitelli.
In a statement, the Prime Ministry said efforts were under way to search for two people in Tekirdag who were dragged away by waters.
The Prime Ministry said it had allocated an emergency fund of 2million Turkish lira (TL) (about 1.35 million U.S. dollars) for Istanbul province and 250,000 TL for Tekirdag.
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Photo taken on Sept. 9, 2009 shows houses damaged in flood in Istanbul, Turkey. [Xinhua]
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Search and rescue efforts as well as damage assessment were under way in areas worst hit by floods with the help of six helicopters and 35 boats, it said.
On Tuesday, the Anatolia news agency quoted Tekirdag Governor Zubeyir Kemelek as saying six bodies were found in the Saray town of his province.
A total of 1,600 homes and business places had been devastated by floods in the towns of Silivri and Selimpasa in Istanbul province, Turkish Minister of Environment and Forestry Veysel Eroglu told reporters earlier on Wednesday.
It was the heaviest rain in Istanbul in 80 years, Mayor Kadir Topbas of the Istanbul city told a news conference Wednesday, attributing the floods to climate changes and Istanbul's topography, according to Anatolia.
