Istanbul floods seem to kill at least three as searches go on for six missing

Turkish officials say torrential rain that flooded Istanbul from Wednesday, October 14, into Thursday killed at least three people in the city, while search teams kept looking for six people reported missing — five in Istanbul and one in neighboring Kocaeli province. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi gave those figures at the disaster agency AFAD’s emergency management centre, Anadolu Agency (AA) reports; Türkiye Today carries the same three-dead, six-missing tally in English. The Associated Press reports that the downpour killed at least three people, officials said Thursday. Xinhua’s Thursday report lists five people missing in Istanbul, which matches the Istanbul share of Çiftçi’s six; an earlier Daily Sabah report, citing the Istanbul governor’s office, gave four missing.

The earliest report this desk found, from Al Jazeera (published 03:12 GMT on Thursday), says footage it verified showed a surveillance camera capturing the moment a 14-year-old boy collapsed after stepping into a puddle in the Balat area of Istanbul’s Fatih district, and that the governor’s office opened an investigation into the incident. The BBC, citing BBC Turkish later on Thursday, reported two deaths at that point: the electrocuted boy and a 34-year-old man who slipped while trying to cross a road and hit his head on the pavement. Xinhua describes the 34-year-old as a pedestrian who died after slipping into floodwaters, and says rescue teams then recovered the body of a man swept away by floodwaters in the Ayazaga neighbourhood of Sariyer, raising the toll to three. Daily Sabah, citing the governor’s office, instead places a man’s body near Sadabad Park in Kağıthane district, and Hürriyet reports a body found beside the stream in Kağıthane’s Sadabad area. This desk flags the gap over where the third victim died rather than picking one account.

A fourth death appears in some counts. CNN Türk’s live page, last updated Friday morning Turkey time, says the toll rose to four after a worker draining water from a well at a school construction site in Beykoz fell into it and died, and says seven people still received hospital treatment. Hürriyet reports the same Beykoz death, plus a man who fell from a Zeytinburnu rooftop during repairs, as two accident deaths during post-flood recovery, separate from its flood toll of three. Environment Minister Murat Kurum, speaking after an Istanbul disaster coordination meeting in remarks AA published on Friday, still offered condolences for three people who died in Istanbul. On hospital cases, Governor Davut Gül said on Thursday evening that seven people got discharged and none remained in hospital, TV5 reports — a line that conflicts with CNN Türk’s seven-in-treatment note.

Rescue figures climbed with each statement. The BBC says deputy mayor Nuri Aslan reported 595 people evacuated to safe areas after becoming trapped, with more than 8,000 workers responding; Al Jazeera calls Aslan the acting mayor. Xinhua says Gül announced 3,050 rescues and quotes him: “There is no one left waiting to be rescued.” Çiftçi put the figure at 3,055, rescued by AFAD, the coast guard, the gendarmerie and municipal crews, Türkiye Today and AA report, and Kurum gave 3,057 in remarks AA published on Friday. These look like successive running totals from different officials; no outlet this desk read gives a final figure.

Emergency-call counts also differ by source and time. Çiftçi said provinces under weather warnings logged 12,372 emergency reports, 9,755 of them from Istanbul, and that teams responded to 7,456 incidents confirmed through Istanbul’s 112 emergency call centre, Türkiye Today and AA report. Xinhua quotes Çiftçi on a different figure, 8,815 distress calls across Istanbul. Kurum said the coordination centre received 9,755 reports and that units responded at once to 7,800 of them, AA reports. Çiftçi said 46,597 personnel worked in Istanbul — 8,597 in search, rescue and first response and 38,000 in support — and 58,085 nationwide, with 1,000 AFAD volunteers in the field, according to Türkiye Today and AA.

On the rain itself, Çiftçi said falls reached up to 272 kilograms per square metre in parts of Istanbul, AA reports; Türkiye Today renders that as 272 millimetres. Kurum gave 186 kilograms per square metre in 24 hours and 273 kilograms so far, and called it the city’s heaviest rainfall in the last 83 years, AA reports. The BBC reports the governor calling it the heaviest in 84 years, and Hürriyet quotes him as saying the city got its highest rainfall since 1942. Station figures vary as well: Daily Sabah, citing the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s disaster coordination centre, says Beykoz recorded 269.5 millimetres between midnight Tuesday and 7:30 a.m. Thursday, while CNN Türk gives 238 kilograms for Beykoz. On timing, Al Jazeera says the rain began on Tuesday evening; Xinhua says the downpour began on Wednesday morning and intensified by evening.

The flooding disrupted travel and services. The BBC says 46 planes could not land at Istanbul’s airports, citing BBC Turkish, and that the city extended metro hours to 02:00 local time. The Independent counts at least 53 cancellations on Thursday across both main airports, citing Flightradar data for Istanbul Airport, after 89 on Wednesday; Hürriyet quotes the governor saying Istanbul Airport diverted 51 flights and canceled 19. Al Jazeera reports floodwater reaching two hospitals and the Haciosman metro station, and says a primary school’s retaining wall in Sultangazi collapsed while students sat in class, with no injuries reported. Kurum said about 40,000 residents lost power as a precaution, AA reports.

Kurum also gave the first damage tally this desk found: 48 landslides, 53 retaining walls collapsed across 39 districts, damage assessments for 300 businesses and 200 vehicles in Ayazağa alone, and 109 animals dead, with assessments due to finish by the weekend, AA reports. In remarks this desk paraphrases from AA’s Turkish text, Kurum called on municipalities to clean stream beds, maintain stream works, strengthen rainwater drainage and reassess flood risks, calling that a responsibility that can no longer wait, and said past 50- to 100-year rainfall calculations had failed to hold. Daily Sabah says the Kağıthane stream overflowed and flooded the historic Sadabad Mosque and nearby buildings.

More rain seems likely. The Independent quotes the State Meteorological Service: “Rainfall is expected to resume in the region from Friday morning, and is predicted to be particularly heavy in Istanbul, especially the northern districts on the European side, and in eastern Kırklareli.” Xinhua says the service expects rain to intensify overnight into Saturday. Kurum said a yellow warning remained in force for Istanbul, AA reports, and CNN Türk says the service warned 14 provinces. Çiftçi closed schools on Friday in Istanbul, Kocaeli, Zonguldak, Sakarya, Düzce and Yalova, Hürriyet reports. Çiftçi urged residents to leave stream beds and low-lying areas and to avoid floodwater, saying “Human life is more precious than anything,” Türkiye Today reports, and Aslan wrote on X, per the BBC: “I urge all our citizens to remain vigilant against the expected heavy rain and storm, particularly during nighttime hours.”

Reading note: this desk wrote from outlet copies, not field reporting. It did not read the Interior Ministry’s or AFAD’s own statement pages, the Istanbul governorship’s releases, the State Meteorological Service warning text, or Aslan’s X post as primaries; Çiftçi’s and Kurum’s words come via Anadolu Agency, Türkiye Today, Hürriyet and CNN Türk. AP’s page returned a block to direct fetch, so AP lines rest on a search-index excerpt. Turkish-language lines appear here as this desk’s paraphrase, without quotation marks. Tolls, missing counts and rescue totals may still move.