Heavy snow continues to lash Istanbul, more on the cards
Istanbul remained under the realm of heavy snowfall since Friday. After a brief sunny spell amid the early hours of Tuesday, snowfall made a comeback over the city during afternoon hours.
The bad weather wreaked its first casualty in the city on Tuesday. A canopy in a mosque's courtyard in the city's Atakoy district collapsed on people who were attending funeral prayers. One person was found dead and more than ten others were injured. Officials said that the collapse was due to accumulated snow on the canopy.
As per weathermen, snowfall is likely to continue and may recede until Friday. Occasional sleet is expected for the city but snowfall will continue on higher ground.
As of now, schools will remain closed due to heavy snowfall. Most of the domestic flights have resumed in Istanbul. Still the flag carrier's website urges travelers to follow them online for possible cancellations.
Passenger ferry services between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul that were cancelled will now operate.
Istanbul has been witnessing snow days since Friday. Not only has bad weather severely affected daily traffic but life in one of the largest cities of Turkey has also come to a standstill. Istanbul along with several other cities have been witnessing heavy snow as well as blizzard conditions.
Schools have been closed owing to prolonged snowy conditions. Several hundreds of flights have been cancelled in the past few days. Not only this, Bosporus which happens to be one of the busiest shipping bottlenecks in the world was also closed to maritime traffic owing to poor visibility.
The school holidays were extended until Tuesday, the same information was shared on Vasip Sahin’s (Istanbul Governor) twitter account. Passenger ferry services were also cancelled between the European and the Asian side.
Since the year 2009, the latest snow spell was the heaviest over Istanbul. Some of the areas witnessed snow depth being up to a whopping 46 inches. Due to the snowfall, around 7,000 municipality personnel were on their toes across the city to make sure that the roads remain open.
As this happens to be the holiday season and several tourists visit Istanbul to ring in the New Year, many international tourists remained stranded due to cancellation of flights.
Toppled trees resulted in the damage of two cars, however, no casualties have been reported. As per weathermen, more snowfall is expected to lash the city during the next 24 hours which may further add to the woes of the people.
Image Credit: ibtimes.co.uk