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© Reuters
Flash floods killed at least 31 people in and around Istanbul on Wednesday, the government said, as the area continued to struggle with its heaviest rainfall in 80 years.

The floodwaters rose quickly. After just a few hours of heavy rain, water had covered many of the city's low-lying areas as well as one of the primary highways connecting the city center and the main airport. Drivers who were caught by the heavy rains told the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency that the fast-rising waters were strong enough to push heavy trucks off the road. News stations showed video of people running and climbing on top of vehicles to escape the rising waters.

Ikitelli, a crowded business district along the highway, was among the hardest hit areas.

Twenty-six people were killed in central Istanbul, and five people died in an outlying area of the city, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Nine people were missing throughout the city, he said.

Seven of the dead were female textile workers who were swept away by raging waters when they got off a minibus in the residential Bagcilar neighborhood, according to NTV television.

Experts said that a lack of adequate infrastructure in the area's low-lying valleys contributed to the death toll.

"Istanbul doesn't yet have a map on flood risks," Miktad Kadioglu, a professor at the Istanbul Technical University Meteorological Engineering Department, told NTV news. "We have the capability, using records of the last 30 years, to project rainfall and to plan proper construction, but that has not been considered."

Istanbul, the business and cultural capital of Turkey, is home to about 15 million people and has historically been vulnerable to natural disasters. The city has grown rapidly over the last 50 years, with uncontrolled and mostly illegal settlements rising on the outskirts.

Rescue missions were in full swing on Wednesday with around 400 workers equipped with heavy machinery, and two helicopters, said Veysel Eroglu, the minister of environment and forestry.

A new front with more powerful rain was expected to move in over northwestern Turkey on Friday and Saturday, NTV meteorologists said.