The violent floods that hit the Black Sea province of Kastamonu and two in neighboring Sinop left at least 25 people dead, according to a provisional report from the government agency responsible for natural disasters (Afad ).

A count that could grow even higher, an unknown number of people were missing.

The floods, caused by heavy rainfall overnight Tuesday through Wednesday, came at a time when Turkey was just recovering from large fires that left eight people dead and ravaged southern tourist areas.

"We were not asked to evacuate"

“Your pain is the pain of all of us.

The State stands by your side with all its means ”, assured President Erdogan.

He visited one of the areas hardest hit by the floods, Bozkurt district, in Kastamonu province, where, among other things, an eight-story apartment building collapsed.

Shocked, some survivors began to express their anger against the local authorities, accusing them of not having reacted quickly enough to bring the population to safety.

“We were only told to put our vehicles to safety, as the river was in danger of overflowing.

We were not told to save our lives or those of our children, ”lamented Arzu Yücel, whose twin daughters and in-laws disappeared after their building collapsed.

"If we had been warned, we would have left in less than five minutes (...) We were not asked to evacuate," she added, sobbing, quoted by the DHA news agency.

Water up to 4 meters high

As a result of heavy precipitation, in some cities, the water reached up to four meters in height, according to the authorities, and the streets of entire cities turned into torrents carrying cars and all kinds of debris.

Adem Senol, 75, saw water surrounding his house in Bartin province in a few minutes.

"Never in my life had I seen such a thing," he told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

“The water rose higher than our windows, broke our door and even the wall of our garden,” he added.

"This is the worst flood that I have ever seen," Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said Thursday, during a trip to the disaster areas.

Faced with the rising waters, the emergency services had to evacuate 45 patients from a hospital in the coastal region of Sinop.

Images broadcast on television and on social media showed villagers taking refuge on the roofs of their homes being evacuated by helicopter.

Several road bridges also collapsed after landslides.

Nearly 200 villages were still without electricity on Friday, authorities said.

Further precipitation expected

Meteorological services forecast continued precipitation over the affected areas for the remainder of the week.

The Turkish regions bordering the Black Sea are frequently prey to flooding.

Last month, six people died in Rize, in the northeast.

After the repeated natural disasters that have hit Turkey, several politicians and associations have increased the pressure on Recep Tayyip Erdogan to take radical measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Turkey is one of the few countries which have not adopted the Paris climate agreement of 2015. With two years of elections which already promise to be difficult for Recep Tayyip Erdogan against a background of economic problems, these natural disasters constitute a political issue.

During a trip to regions affected by fires at the end of July, the Turkish president sparked an outcry by throwing packets of tea from the roof of a bus to the survivors, his detractors having seen it as a sign of a lack of 'empathy.

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