Firefighters use ropes to lift a kidney patient onto a stretcher onto a road damaged by a rainstorm in the village of Kala Nera, near Volos, central Greece, Wednesday, September 6, 2023. The death toll from heavy rains that hit parts of Greece and Turkey and Bulgaria rose on Wednesday after rescue teams found the body of a missing holidaymaker who was swept away by floodwaters that caused rages at a campsite in northwest Turkey. (AP Photo/Thodoris Nikolaou)
ISTANBUL (AP) — The death toll from violent rainstorms that hit parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria rose to 14 on Wednesday after rescue teams from the three neighboring countries recovered seven more body.
A flash flood at a campsite in northwest Turkey, near the border with Bulgaria, killed at least five people – three of whom were found dead on Wednesday – and swept away single-storey houses. Rescuers were still searching for a missing person at the campsite.
Two more people died in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, where Tuesday’s storms flooded hundreds of homes and workplaces in several neighborhoods.
Among the victims in Istanbul was a 32-year-old Guinean citizen who was trapped in his basement apartment in the poor neighborhood of Kucukcekmece, Turkish broadcaster HaberTurk TV reported. The other was a 57-year-old woman who died after being swept away by floods in another neighborhood, the private DHA news agency reported.
Rising floodwaters affected more than 1,750 homes and businesses in the city, according to the Istanbul governor’s office. These included a row of shops in the Ikitelli district, where the deluge swept parked vehicles and mud into furniture stores, destroying merchandise, the DHA reported.
Floods also engulfed a container and truck parking lot on the outskirts of the city, where people found shelter by climbing onto the roof of a restaurant, Turkish media reported.
In Greece, record rainfall left at least three dead near the central town of Volos and in Karditsa, further west, according to firefighters. Three people were reported missing.
Authorities banned traffic in Volos, the neighboring mountainous region of Pilion and the resort island of Skiathos, where many homes remained without electricity or running water on Wednesday. Traffic has also been banned in two other areas of central Greece, near Volos, while storms are expected to continue at least until Thursday afternoon.
In Bulgaria, a storm caused flooding on the southern Black Sea coast. The bodies of two missing people were found at sea on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to four.
Video shows cars and camper vans being swept out to sea in the southern resort of Tsarevo, where authorities have declared a state of emergency.
Most of the region’s rivers burst their banks and several bridges were destroyed, causing serious traffic problems.
Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova said around 4,000 people were affected by the disaster across the entire southern part of Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.
“There is a problem transporting tourists because it is dangerous to travel by coach on the roads affected by the floods,” she added.
