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Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said roughly 46,000 personnel, including AFAD staff, volunteers, coast guard, gendarmerie and municipal teams, are working around the clock in Istanbul after a flood hit the city. Four people were still being searched for.

Çiftçi and Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum visited Ayazağa neighborhood in Sarıyer, the area hit hardest by the disaster, and inspected damaged homes and businesses. Damage assessment continues, with 9,850 reports logged through the 112 emergency call center.

Kurum rejects political criticism

Asked about comments by New Party leader Özgür Özel concerning the Kanal İstanbul project, Kurum said that making politics out of the disaster while searches for the missing are still underway amounts to a weakness and an attempt to cover up shortcomings in that party's own governance.

Kurum said only social housing projects are being built on the Kanal İstanbul site, invited Özel to come to Ayazağa to see the problems firsthand, and said officials are holding consultations with the deputy mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and the mayor of Sarıyer on infrastructure gaps, opening closed sections of the stream and urban transformation. "We will not do mudslinging or smear politics," Kurum said, adding that the work is being done for the prayers of the public.

Key takeaways

• About 46,000 personnel, including AFAD staff, volunteers, coast guard, gendarmerie and municipal teams, are working nonstop in Istanbul.
• Four people are still missing in the flood; one earlier missing-person report was resolved after the person returned safely.
• Ministers Çiftçi and Kurum inspected Ayazağa in Sarıyer, the hardest-hit area, and pledged stream rehabilitation and infrastructure work with local authorities.
• Some 9,850 reports have been received through the 112 emergency call center in Istanbul, and Çiftçi called it the worst flood since 1942.