The death toll continued to rise from floods and mudslides in Turkey.
The death toll from severe floods and mudslides along Turkey’s Black Sea coast has climbed to at least 57, the country’s emergency and disaster agency said Saturday, as authorities disputed reports that hundreds of people were missing. Torrential rains that pounded the Black Sea provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu and Sinop on Wednesday caused flooding that demolished homes, severed at least five bridges, swept away cars and rendered numerous roads unpassable. Turkish disaster agency AFAD said 46 people were killed in Kastamonu, eight in Sinop and one in Bartin. Nine people remained hospitalized, according to the agency. Some residents in Kastamonu said on social media that there are hundreds more missing, a statement also made by an opposition lawmaker. But the provincial governor’s office said that reports about 250 unidentified bodies were untrue. It did not specifically address how many people could be missing in the flooding. In Sinop, floodwaters almost completely wiped out the village of Babacay, leaving toppled homes, damaged bridges and rubble in their wake.
