The heaviest rainfall in over eight decades sent flash floods barrelling across a major highway and into busy business districts in Turkey's largest city on September 9, trapping factory workers and truck drivers in their vehicles and drowning at least 31 people, Turkish media reported.
 
The flash floods in Istanbul claimed the life of at least one Bulgarian citizen, Dragovest Goranov, spokesperson of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.
 
According to the available information, the young male had been hitchhiking in a Turkish car, which was dragged and submerged by the currents. The man’s next of kin have been informed and are currently en route to Turkey to identify the body.
 
The whereabouts of another Bulgarian national, a lorry driver, were unknown, Goranov said. His lorry was discovered empty. Authorities found personal belongings and mobile phones in the cockpit, but no ID and no trace of the driver.
 
The rampant water levels flooded hundreds of homes and offices and cut off the TEM highway, which connects central Istanbul to the sprawling city's main airport and goes on to Greece and Bulgaria.
 
Rescue crews in helicopters extracted trapped people off rooftops in Ikitelli, a commercial and corporate headquarters district about 20km from the Bosporus strait, which divides the European and Asian parts of Turkey.
 
The surging water swept trucks, cars and buses, crushing many into piles of debris. "The waters came suddenly and flowed over my car," survivor Suleyman Kucukkaya told Associated Press Television News. "We were dragged away up to some barriers."

Rescue operations will be hampered by the forecast for the comings days. More rainfall is expected in eastern Bulgaria and northwestern Turkey throughout the week, and Turkish authorities have warned that flooding could spread and affect other cities.
 
Earlier in July, flash floods killed at least six people in the northeastern province of Artvin, destroying over 100 homes and workplaces in the Black Sea province of Giresun.