People had to swim to safety in the flooded streets of İstanbul on July 18 after heavy rain and storms brought chaos to Turkey's largest city.
Several vehicles were stranded in the flood waters and television footage showed a rescue crew entering an underpass in a rubber boat to help trapped passengers. In Üsküdar, a district on the Asian side of İstanbul, the rough waters of the Bosphorus overflowed leaving roads and squares covered.
Tatile gidemedim diye evimin önünü halka açık yüzme havuzu haline getiren yüce allahım pic.twitter.com/5ZHeLEC0J9
— beyza (@beyzaoztass) 18 Temmuz 2017
Millions of local in İstanbul struggled and waded to work on July 18 morning after early-morning thunderstorms boomed over the city, dumping torrents of rain and swamping transport networks.
Heavy rain caused shipping traffic on oil and grain routes through the Bosphorus Strait to be suspended for some hours.
The Eurasia Tunnel, connecting Istanbul's Asian and European sides under the Bosporus strait, was temporarily closed to traffic.
CNN Türk said more than 6,700 bolts of lightning hit the city in a space of two hours and cited the Istanbul municipality as saying 65 kg of rain per square metre had fallen since the morning - the equivalent of 6.5 cm.
