Water-dropping Plane Crashes In Turkey With Seven On Board

A water-dropping plane with seven people on board crashed today in southern Turkey, where it was battling a wildfire.

Russia’s defence ministry said five Russian servicemen and three Turkish nationals were killed in the crash, news agencies reported.

State news agency Anadolu reported that rescuers had rushed to the scene with television footage showing a column of smoke rising from a mountainous zone.

Separately, families of those missing after Turkey’s worst floods in years anxiously watched rescue teams search buildings today, fearing the death toll from the raging torrents could rise further.

At least 44 people have died from the floods in the northern Black Sea region, the second natural disaster to strike the country this month.

Drone footage by Reuters showed massive damage in the flood-hit Black Sea town of Bozkurt, where emergency workers were searching demolished buildings.

Thirty-six people died as a result of floods in the Kastamonu district which includes Bozkurt, and another seven people died in Sinop and one in Bartin, the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said.

 

In one collapsed building along the banks of the swollen river, 10 people were still believed buried. The rapid floodwaters appeared to have swept away the foundations of several other apartment blocks.

Relatives of the missing, desperate for news, were nearby.

The floods brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring wildfires that raged through southern coastal regions for two weeks had been brought under control.

About 45 cm of rain fell in less than three days in one village near Bozkurt.

Torrents of water tossed dozens of cars and heaps of debris along streets, destroyed bridges, closed roads and cut off electricity to hundreds of villages.

The small town of Bozkurt lies in a valley along the banks of the Ezine river in Kastamonu province, 2.5 km from the Black Sea.