Istanbul floods: nearly 100kg of rain per square metre in 12 hours shuts schools and jams the city

Nearly 100 kilograms of rain per square metre fell on Istanbul in the 12 hours from 10pm Tuesday to 10am Wednesday (14 October), Deputy Mayor Nuri Aslan said, flooding roads across Turkey's biggest city and shutting its schools on Thursday, Daily Sabah reported with Anadolu Agency. For scale, 100kg per square metre is 100mm of rain, an amount usually counted as excessive over a full 24 hours. The BBC reported that two people had died, citing the governor, who called it the heaviest rainfall in 84 years. "Istanbul floods" was among the top searches in Pakistan on Thursday.

The damage

• Traffic: congestion reached 89% on Wednesday, with jams on the D-100, the TEM motorway and the Şile highway, on the approaches to the Fatih Sultan Mehmet and 15 July Martyrs bridges, and along the Karaköy to Beşiktaş coast road.
• Transport hubs: Zincirlikuyu, Uzunçayır and Zeytinburnu were packed as drivers switched to public transport.
• Response: the city deployed 8,392 staff and 2,246 vehicles from its disaster coordination centre (AKOM).
• Schools: classes were suspended on Thursday 15 October.

More rain and wind forecast

Heavy rain was expected to continue, especially around the Bosporus and on the Asian side, with winds of 75 to 80 km/h that could bring storm conditions. The city asked people to leave cars at home and use public transport.

If you are travelling to or through Istanbul

Istanbul is one of the busiest transit points for Pakistanis flying to Europe and North America, on Turkish Airlines and Pegasus from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

• Allow extra time to reach Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gökçen: road traffic is the main problem, and the metro lines to both airports are the safer bet.
• Check your flight status with the airline before leaving for the airport.
• Short connections: if you have a self-booked connection on separate tickets, a delay is your risk, not the airline's.
• Money: for spending in lira, see the rupee rate on our currency converter.