Trapped students rescued from blizzard in eastern Turkey

[senorpepr]

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Six schoolboys and three adults were rescued after being trapped for 16 hours in a blizzard in eastern Turkey, but in other parts of the country at least six people have died of cold and two others were missing.

The six students, two teachers and their driver were found in a van blocked by a heavy snowfall outside a village in the province of Erzurum, Anatolia news agency reported Saturday.

The group, which was on its way to an athletics competition, survived thanks to the vehicle's heating system. They were reported in good condition.

In the same province, a 13-year-old boy froze to death on his way to school, and rescuers were still searching for two men missing since Friday.

In Manisa province, in western Turkey, paramilitary police found the body of a 76-old-man who froze to death in a blizzard while returning home from a farming field, Anatolia said.

An eight-year-old boy froze to death while returning from school in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, where authorities declared a state of alert on Thursday.

At one point, 4,000 motorists were trapped in their cars and power, heating and water supplies were disrupted in and around the city of 10 million by what the head of Istanbul's meteorology department, Mustafa Yildirim, said was "the heaviest snowfall of the past 30 years."

Major roads were re-opened to traffic on Saturday, as were the two bridges spanning the Bosphorus strait between Istanbul's European and Asian districts.

Electricity was restored to most parts of the city, allowing also for the resumption of natural gas and water deliveries.

The equivalent of a month's precipitation fell on the region in 24 hours, piling snow up to 35 centimeters (14 inches) deep in some neighborhoods.

Yildirim said more snow was expected in northwest Turkey over the weekend, but with less intensity and without the freezing effect of strong winds, and temperatures would start rising on Monday.