Istanbul Flood Toll Rises to Four Dead and Three Missing

Turkey's interior minister said four people have died and three are missing after the Istanbul floods. He called it the city's worst flood since 1942.

The death toll from the flash floods in Istanbul has risen to four, with three people still missing. Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci gave the figures to reporters in Ayazaga, in the Sariyer district, one of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods. He called it the city's worst flood since 1942. Rescue teams recovered the body of a 66-year-old man under a bridge along a creek in Ayazaga. That recovery is the fourth death. A day earlier the toll stood at three dead and five missing. Those three included a 14-year-old boy who was electrocuted in a puddle, and a 34-year-old pedestrian who slipped into floodwater. The missing list has shortened by two, and the dead have risen by one. Four are dead and three are still missing. Ciftci did not publish a rainfall total.

Why it matters

A rising toll means the search is working and that it is not over. Five missing became three missing and one more body. The other two may have been found alive. The minister did not say so in the figures he gave, so that remains an open question. What he did say is that this is the worst flood Istanbul has suffered since 1942. That comparison matters because the city has paved over the hills that used to absorb rain. Water runs into creeks, underpasses and basements. A 14-year-old died because a puddle was live. A pedestrian died because a street became a stream. A 66-year-old was found under a bridge. Three different deaths, one storm. Sariyer sits on the European side, on slopes that drain fast. Ayazaga is where the minister chose to speak, because that is where the water did its worst. Two of the five people who were missing are no longer on that list. The minister's new figures do not say whether they were found alive. Until he does, families of the three who remain missing have the only number that still moves.

Key facts

• Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said four people are dead and three are missing.

• He described the flood as Istanbul's worst since 1942.

• Rescue teams found a 66-year-old man under a bridge on a creek in Ayazaga, in Sariyer.

• The previous toll was three dead and five missing, including a boy electrocuted in a puddle and a pedestrian who slipped into floodwater.

• The minister gave no rainfall figure.

• Search teams are still looking for the three missing people.

What's next

The search for the three missing people is the immediate task. Each body found will change the toll again. The larger question is the one Ciftci's 1942 comparison opens. A city that calls a flood its worst in more than 80 years has to say what it will change in the drains, the exposed wires and the creeks before the next storm. A death under a bridge is a search result. A death in a live puddle is a wiring failure. Istanbul has not, in this briefing, announced either repair. Ciftci spoke in Ayazaga because that neighbourhood took the worst of the water. The creek under the bridge is still the place the fourth body was found.