Nine killed in Turkey floods
Posted: 09 September 2009 0604 hrs

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ANKARA - Nine people were killed and two were missing Tuesday as torrential rain triggered floods in northwestern Turkey, media repoprts and officials said.

A family of five were swept away from a farm near the town of Saray, Tekirdag province, when heavy rain caused a river to burst its banks overnight and inundate a large area, causing significant material damage, the town's mayor Nazmi Coban told the Anatolia news agency.

The bodies of the mother and her three daughters, aged six, eight and 12, were found several kilometres (miles) away from the farm. Rescue teams were still looking for the father.

Rescuers also discovered the bodies of an elderly couple among the wreckage of a nearby house that was swept away by the flooding, Coban told Anatolia.

In Silivri, a seaside suburb of Turkey's biggest city Istanbul, one person died of a heart attack when flood waters gushed into his home, governor Muammer Gulen told the Anatolia news agency.

Rescuers were searching for a two-year-old girl washed away by the flood in a car from which her mother and sister managed to get out safely, he added.

Dozens of people were evacuated from their homes by military helicopters and small boats.

Footage broadcast on television showed large parts of the Silivri shore inundated as flood waters gushing into the sea where cars were clearly visible among moored boats.

Two other victims died in the Istanbul suburb of Catalca when they were swept away the gushing waters, sub-governor Yuksel Ayhan told the NTV news channel.

The storm in Istanbul also caused a Cambodian-flagged bulk carrier to run aground near the suburb Kilyos on the Black Sea coast, newspapers said Tuesday.

The vessel later broke in two under the impact of massive waves, they added.

The 12-strong crew of Ukrainians, Georgians and Azeris, was rescued by Turkish coast guard.

- AFP /ls