Snow, wind and cold bring massive disruption to Turkey

[senorpepr]

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkey's biggest city was under a state of alert and rescue services were stretched throughout the country as a second day of heavy snow, high winds and freezing weather left homes without power, motorists trapped in unheated vehicles and transport links cut.

In and around Istanbul rescue services were struggling to help thousands of motorists trapped in their cars, many of whom had no fuel left to heat their vehicles, while in the eastern town of Cat a 13-year-old boy froze to death while walking home from school.

The authorities shut down the key maritime route linking the Black Sea to the Mediterranean via the Bosphorus due to heavy winds.

Ground and air transport links were also hit, although Istanbul's international airport, closed for several hours on Thursday, was able to reopen on Friday.

Many roads were blocked and the western borders with Greece and Bulgaria shut down.

The Istanbul stock exchange was also to remain closed on Friday.

Television reports said at least 4,000 motorists were trapped at different points around Istanbul alone. Many of them had run out of fuel after leaving their motors running for heating purposes overnight.

Others had simply abandoned their vehicles in the snow.

The authorities declared a high-level emergency and an emergency services official, Ali Karahan, said some 9,000 police and municipal staff had been mobilized. Troops using bulldozers were also called out.

Karahan said that the equivalent of a month's precipitation had fallen on the region in just 24 hours, and the combination of snow plus freezing temperatures made the situation particularly dangerous.

On Friday the snowfall was continuing, and TV pictures showed scenes of chaos in much of the Istanbul region. Many people were making efforts to get to work on foot.

Weather forecasters said snow was expected to continue falling throughout the weekend.

Istanbul and several other cities -- notably in northwestern Turkey -- were also experiencing electrical power cuts.

A large part of Istanbul's European side, to the west of the Bosphorus, had been without electricity for some 14 hours.

"I have had no power, water or heating since 7:00 pm on Thursday," said 37-year-old Murat Akinci, who lives in the city's Bebek neighbourhood. He added that the depth of the snow, some 30 centimetres (12 inches) prevented him from getting to work.

The blizzard even shut down schools and several roads in the normally clement Mediterranean coastal town of Izmir.

The authorities said they had recorded more than 350 traffic accidents during Thursday and that a huge snarl-up caused by the heavy snow fall in the sprawling city had been made worse by scores of abandoned vehicles strewn across the highways.