The death toll in floods and landslides in Turkey reached 34 today as rescuers uncovered more bodies in mud and debris in the north of the country, officials said.
The death toll in the worst hit region, the Black Sea province of Rize, hit 27 when four more victims were pulled from the remnants of a house destroyed by a landslide in the small village of Selamet.
A member of the Rize crisis desk said a total of 17 people, among them five children, had perished in the same house, where several families had gathered on Tuesday night to escape landslides caused by torrential rains.
Four men were still missing in the province, he added.
Deputy Prime Minister Mr Mesut Yilmaz, who visited the region yesterday, said there was no hope of finding any survivors.
An army helicopter was dropping food packages to the residents of about 65 villages, which remained cut off, their roads blocked by landslides.
More than a dozen villages were without electricity and about 20 without telephone services.
The floods have claimed seven other lives in nearby regions and the eastern province of Kars since heavy rainfall first struck late on Monday.
In Rize province alone, 80 villages were affected from the disaster, 20 buildings collapsed and 200 houses were evacuated.
The disaster also damaged vast swathes of agricultural land in the region where the livelihood of locals depends largely on tea cultivation.
AFP