Volkswacht Bodensee - Three dead as Istanbul sees heaviest rainfall in 80 years

The rain began lashing Turkey's largest city in earnest on Wednesday morning and intensified throughout the day, causing chaos and flash flooding, with footage showing cars being dragged away by the fast-flowing waters.

"We are talking here about the highest level of precipitation in Istanbul since records began in 1942," Istanbul governor Davut Gul said.

The death toll from the floods rose to three when authorities found a man's body near a park in the Kagithane area on the European side, Gul's office said in a statement.

The storm also claimed the life of a 14-year-old boy who was electrocuted when he stepped into a puddle in the Balat area. He was rushed to hospital but medical personnel were unable to save him, officials said.

Four others were missing, officials said.

Istanbul municipal teams and firefighters were carrying out cleanup operations at schools, football pitches, garages and other sites on Thursday, pumping water out of flooded areas and clearing mud, an AFP photographer reported.

On Wednesday evening, the governor said schools would be shut across Istanbul until Monday, urging people to stay home "unless absolutely necessary" and advising those living in basement properties "to spend the night on safer, higher floors".

In Beykoz, on Istanbul's Asian side, a retaining wall around a three-storey complex collapsed with the building evacuated for safety reasons, media reports said.

Dramatic footage posted online and collated by DHA news agency showed a line of parked cars in the northern Sariyer district being pushed into the torrent of muddy water, where they were swept away.

Another showed people being hauled from the raging waters to safety through a first-floor window, while elsewhere two people with umbrellas were seen stepping into the shovel of a large mechanical digger, which took them away.

Power and water cuts have also hit areas of the city, notably in Sariyer where shopkeepers could be seen trying to salvage their goods from the mud, an AFP journalist said.

Forty-three flights bound for Istanbul Airport on the Black Sea had to be diverted, as did three flights heading for the city's Sabiha Gokcen airport on the Asian side, which also temporarily suspended take-offs due to strong winds, the transport ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency Anadolu.

Turkey's AFAD disaster agency has set up a crisis desk to manage incidents caused by the heavy rainfall, which by nightfall Wednesday had risen to 1,277 flooding incidents, 15 landslides, 47 people stranded and two roofs blown off.

The heavy rains are expected to continue over the weekend.

K.Sutter--VB