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A 14-year-old boy died after being electrocuted when he stepped into a puddle at a park in Istanbul’s Fatih district, as heavy rain flooded neighborhoods across Türkiye’s largest city.
The boy, identified only by the initials M.I., was taken to a hospital unconscious after the incident at Cukurbostan Park in the Balat neighborhood. Doctors could not save him despite all efforts to treat him, according to a statement on the case. An investigation has been opened.
The statement did not say when the incident occurred, what caused the electrical current in the water, or who was responsible for the equipment in the area. It gave no further details about the boy.
Cukurbostan, a quarter between Balat and Atikali, takes its name from the Byzantine Cistern of Aspar, which was used as a vegetable garden in the Ottoman period.
About 100 kilograms of rain fell per square meter across Istanbul on Wednesday, equivalent to about 100 millimeters. Totals were far higher in some districts: 210 kilograms in Beykoz, 170 each in Eyupsultan and Sariyer, 130 in Arnavutkoy and 120 in Buyukcekmece.
The Istanbul Governorate said emergency lines received 2,518 reports between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. These included 1,277 floodings, 15 landslides, 47 cases of people trapped, 13 fallen trees and two roofs blown off. Reports also covered 76 vehicles, 808 homes and 280 workplaces.
The governorate said a crisis desk was set up at the regional office of the disaster agency AFAD, and 8,000 personnel and 2,000 vehicles and pieces of construction equipment were deployed. As of 8 p.m., it said, no roads were closed, airport runways were open and no flights had been canceled. Its published tally did not list any deaths.
In Sariyer, two people were swept away by floodwater but managed to grab hold of something and escape. In Fatih, the district where the boy died, water also flooded the historic Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar.
Governor Davut Gul asked residents to stay home on Thursday unless necessary. He advised people living in basement apartments to spend the night on higher floors and urged everyone to avoid stream beds, underpasses and areas at risk of flooding. People without a safe place to stay could call the 112 emergency line for help, he said.
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