The death toll from severe floods and mudslides along Turkey's Black Sea coast has climbed to at least 57, the country's emergency and disaster agency says.
Turkish disaster agency AFAD said on Saturday that 48 people were killed in Kastamonu, eight in Sinop and one in Bartin.
Torrential rains that pounded the Black Sea provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu and Sinop on Wednesday caused flooding that demolished homes, severed at least five bridges, swept away cars and rendered numerous roads impassable.
Some residents in Kastamonu said on social media that there are hundreds of missing, a statement also made Friday by an opposition politician.
But the provincial governor's office said reports that there were 250 to 300 unidentified bodies were untrue.
It did not specifically address how many people could be missing in the flooding or if authorities did have any unidentified bodies.
Villages wiped out
In Sinop, floodwaters almost completely wiped out the village of Babacay, leaving toppled homes, damaged bridges and rubble in their wake. A five-story apartment building constructed on a riverbed was destroyed, along with numerous homes.
Rescue teams and sniffer dogs kept up their painstaking task of trying to locate the missing. AFAD said 5,820 personnel, 20 rescue dogs, 20 helicopters and two search planes were at the disaster spots.
About 2,250 people were evacuated across the region amid the floods, scores of them lifted from rooftops by helicopters. Many are being temporarily housed in student dormitories.
Floods survivors accused local authorities of not giving them proper warning about the dangers of incoming storms.
Women react as they look at the destroyed building where they lived, in Bozkurt town of Kastamonu province, Turkey. Source: AAP
Criticism has also been levelled at the fact several buildings were built in flood zones.
In Bozkurt in Kastamonu province, one eight-storey building constructed on the banks of the Ezine river collapsed.
Footage shot by survivors showed furious river waters flooding the streets in just a few minutes, carrying off cars and traffic signs.
The government has denied that the sudden rise in water levels was linked to a hydro-electric power station further up the river, after media reported its water-retention dam may have ruptured.
Fires then floods
Climate scientists unequivocally say climate change is leading to more extreme weather events as the world warms because of the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
Experts in Turkey, however, said human interference with rivers and improper construction also contributed to the massive flood damage.
Geologists say construction narrowed the river bed and the surrounding alluvial flood plain of the Ezine stream in Kastamonu's Bozkurt district, where the damage was most severe, from 400 metres wide to 15 metres. Residential buildings were also built along the waterfront.
During severe rains, the constricted stream can only overflow. One geologist, Ramazan Demirtas, explained the river bed narrowing on Twitter and said humans were to blame for this week's disaster.
The floods struck on the heels of wildfires in southern Turkey that devastated forests in the seaside provinces of Mugla and Antalya, which are popular with tourists.
At least 16 people died in those wildfires - including eight emergency workers as their firefighting plane crashed Saturday - and thousands of residents and tourists were forced to flee.
Additional reporting: AFP
