(zaman) - Fierce rains and flooding across Turkey for the past two days have wound up in the deaths of 24 citizens in different towns and villages, mostly in the southeast region. In Diyarbakir, walls of mud swallowed wide swaths of land, leaving houses buried halfway high by mud, and people desperate to be rescued, reports Trend.
In Bismil, near Diyarbakir, 100 people waited to be rescued by helicopter from the roof of one apartment, while nearby, a minibus carrying a large group of people to a wedding was stuck and then swallowed in a wall of mud, leading to the deaths of 14 people, including 3 children. Though rain and flooding was less severe in Istanbul, people living near Belgrade Forest had to be rescued by teams in boats as the first floors of their homes were flooded. Areas such as Sariyer, Beykoz, and Kagithane in Istanbul also experienced serious flooding, with what officials estimated as being one month's worth of rain falling in a period of 48 hours.
An aerial photograph of the muddy water being deposited from low lying channels coming out of Beykoz, Sariyer, Kucuksu, Istinye, Baltalimani, Ortakoy and Kagithane depict a normally blue Bosphorus turned brown from the run-off.