Floods kill 29 people in Turkey

Seven women drowned on their way to work in flash floods which have killed at least 29 people in and around Istanbul, Turkey.

Many more people are still missing, local authorities said today, as Turkey's largest city continued to struggle with the heaviest rainfall in 80 years. Houses were swamped and drivers stranded on roads transformed into torrents.

To make the city’s problems worse, another front of more powerful rain was expected to move in over north-western Turkey on Friday and Saturday, NTV’s weather service said.

Rescue missions were in full swing today, with about 400 workers equipped with heavy machinery and two helicopters, Veysel Eroglu, the minister of Environment and Forestry, said at a news conference.

Waters rose higher than a metre (3ft) in Ikitelli, a crowded business district, cutting off the route to the main airport and the motorway to Greece and Bulgaria on the European, or western, side of the city.

Hikmet Cakmak, Istanbul's deputy governor, described the scene as a "disaster" and said four helicopters and eight boats were sent to help rescue people.

Police were deployed to prevent people from looting goods from factories and shops. Even amid the flooding, an Associated Press photographer saw people plundering abandoned vehicles.

"We are saddened by the loss of lives. There are still some people missing and we are searching for them," said the procurement minister, Mustafa Demir. "There is huge damage to infrastructure. We need to be more careful when designing infrastructure and cities."