This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/europe/6105552.stm
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Many dead in Turkey flash floods | Many dead in Turkey flash floods |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| At least 20 people have died in severe flooding across south-eastern Turkey, many swept away by deluges caused by overnight torrential rain. | At least 20 people have died in severe flooding across south-eastern Turkey, many swept away by deluges caused by overnight torrential rain. |
| Victims included a party of 14 wedding guests travelling in a minibus from Diyarbakir to neighbouring Mardin. | |
| Helicopters and boats are struggling to rescue some 300 people trapped in their flooded homes in Cinar and Bismil. | Helicopters and boats are struggling to rescue some 300 people trapped in their flooded homes in Cinar and Bismil. |
| Officials have warned that heavy rains, which began over the weekend, are likely to continue in the region. | Officials have warned that heavy rains, which began over the weekend, are likely to continue in the region. |
| In Cinar, a woman and her two children drowned when water flooded into their house, AFP news agency reported. | |
| The agency quoted district governor Haci Mehmet Kara as saying two young siblings had also died in similar circumstances in Silopi. | |
| Many of the homes in the poor, mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey are constructed with mud bricks and cannot withstand floods and earthquakes. | |
| 'We are helpless' | |
| Military rescue teams, in helicopters and dinghies, plucked stranded people from the roofs of houses or from streets as floodwaters streamed around them. | |
| Other areas of Turkey were badly affected by the storms, including the southern Mediterranean coast and the west of the country, with parts of eastern Istanbul also under water. | |
| "We are helpless," said Mayor Muharrem Ergul, of the Beykoz district of Istanbul. | |
| "We're trying to rescue trapped people while also trying to evacuate flood waters that have inundated hundreds of houses," he told the Associated Press. | |
| In one part of the district 100 children were stranded in a school for several hours. | |
| Sparsely inhabited areas were also badly hit, with farmers fearing for their livelihoods. | |
| Hundreds of animals were killed and vast cotton fields were under water. |