ISTANBUL, 7 oct (AFP) - Heavy rainstorms flooded roads and homes and paralysed traffic in Istanbul on Thursday, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, rescue officials said.
Five schools were closed in the worst-hit area of Alibeykoy, a low-lying neighborhood on the European side of this city that spans two continents, while dozens of kilometers (miles) of jams halted traffic on the beltway and the two bridges linking Europe and Asia.
"More than 30 kilos (eight gallons) of rain per square meter (10.8 sq feet) fell on Istanbul over the past few hours, peaking at 100 kilos (26 gallons) in some areas," Cengiz Ozturk, a spokesman for the city's Disaster Coordination Center, told AFP.
"Traffic is paralysed, there are lots of accidents, cellars and ground floors are flooded, but we have no reports of dead or missing," he said.
By midday, firemen in this sprawling city of 12 million had been called on more than 600 times, Ozturk said, while media reports, quoting firemen, said flood waters had reached heights of more than 1.5 meter (five feet) in some areas.
The main road was inundated in the leafy Bosphorus suburb of Istinye where the Istanbul Stock Market is located on the European side of the city and flood waters mixed with waste gushed out of sewage holes.
Istanbul's notoriously inadequate sewage system quickly overflows with almost every heavy rain, and most of the damage occurs in low-lying neighborhoods with almost non-existant infrastructure that mushroom around the city as a result of uncontrolled urbanization.
Heavy rains in August, said to be the worst in decades, had again flooded Alibeykoy, where Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas had pledged to expropriate property and move people to safer areas, but action has yet to be taken.
Dozens of houses and workplaces were isolated by flood waters in Beykoz, on the Asian shore, and firemen came to the rescue of a stranded school bus, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Two subway stations were evacuated and there were power cuts in some areas, city officials said.
Ironically, the downpour, which began around midnight (2100 GMT) Wednesday and is expected to last for three more days, according to the weather department, came after a 40-hour cut in the water supply in wide swathes of the city's European side.