At least five dead in floods in Greece, Türkiye and Bulgaria

O Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said two people had died and four others were missing after flooding hit a campsite in Kirklareli province, close to the Bulgarian border.

“Search and rescue efforts for the (four) missing people continue uninterruptedly,” he wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter.

Television footage showed rescuers carrying a girl and an adult to safety in waist-deep water in some areas. The rains also damaged and forced the closure of a main road.

In Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city, heavy rain flooded streets and homes in at least two neighborhoods.

About a dozen people were trapped in a library, while some metro stations were closed, Turkish daily newspaper Cumhuriyet reported. Istanbul Governor Davut Gul urged motorcyclists to stay at home.

In Greece, police have banned traffic in the central city of Volos, the nearby mountainous region of Pilion and the tourist island of Skiathos as record rainfall caused at least one death.

A man died near Volos when a wall collapsed and five people are reported missing, possibly washed away by floodwaters.

Authorities sent out cell phone alerts in several other areas of central Greece, warning people to limit their movements abroad.

Watercourses overflowed and dragged cars into the sea in the Pilion area, while rockfalls blocked roads, a small bridge was washed away and many areas suffered electricity cuts. As a precaution, authorities evacuated a nursing home.

Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said the heavy rain was expected to ease after midday on Wednesday and advised people in affected areas to stay indoors.

The storm follows a string of massive forest fires that have hit Greece in recent weeks, some of which burned for more than two weeks and destroyed vast swathes of forest and farmland. More than 20 people died in the fires.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis blamed the fires and storms on climate change, admitting that his centre-right government “did not manage things as well as we would like” in managing the fight against the fires.

“I fear that careless summers, as we used to know them, will cease to exist and that, from now on, the next summers will be more and more difficult”, said the minister.

Further north, in Bulgaria, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said two people were killed and three others were missing after a storm caused flooding on the southern Black Sea coast.

Strong winds caused waves two meters high that hit the beaches of tourist resorts, in the midst of torrential rains that flooded streets and houses.

Television footage showed cars and caravans being swept out to sea in the worst-hit southern resort town of Tsarevo. Authorities declared a state of emergency in the region and asked people to avoid ground floors.

Read Also: Rains ‘flooded’ Madrid metro. Pictures are awesome