Numerous flights to and from the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul also had to be canceled on Sunday due to the effects of the heavy snowfall.
Istanbul/Athens – A total of 279 connections of the airline Turkish Airlines are affected, said a spokesman for the dpa. Pegasus also canceled around 40 connections.
The city experienced the coldest March in the past 30 years, according to Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. Heavy snowfall in particular had buried the city under a dense white blanket on Saturday. Cars slid down steep streets unchecked, local public transport partially collapsed, according to reports from the state broadcaster TRT.
We experienced the coldest and heavy snowy days of the last 30 years. First of all, I would like to thank my 16 million citizens of Istanbul who acted in coordination with IMM and thousands of my fellow travelers who worked on the field. Snowfall will continue on Sunday, but we have left the difficult one behind.
— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) March 12, 2022
Many other parts of the country were also hit by the heavy snowfall. The newspaper “Cumhuriyet” reported, for example, about an imam who got caught in a snowstorm after prayer in Elazig in central Turkey and only didn’t freeze to death because he burned clothes in his pocket and warmed himself by the fire until rescue workers arrived.
Imamoglu said 40 centimeters of snow fell in Istanbul on Saturday. It will continue to snow with interruptions on Monday, but the worst is over.
In Greece, meanwhile, thaw started on Sunday – previously it had snowed heavily on Saturday, especially in central Greece, but also on the island of Crete. dpa
