More than 40 drown in seas, lakes, dams in Turkey during Eid

SİVAS

Some 43 people, including five foreigners, drowned in seas, lakes and dams in 22 provinces amid the long Eid al-Adha holiday.

According to data obtained by the state-run Anadolu Agency, 16 of those who died were children.

Istanbul and the Black Sea province of Amasya are two provinces with the highest cases, with five deaths each.

The northwestern province of Kocaeli and the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa follow both with four deaths each.

A family of four lost their lives while trying to cool in a dam lake in Amasya, including three-year-old Levent Canikli, who became the youngest victim.

The oldest person who got drowned was a 62-year-old pensioner in the Kuşadası district of the western province of Aydın, whose dead body was found in the Aegean Sea.

An Iraqi citizen died in the northern province of Samsun after losing balance and falling into the Black Sea.

In the Şile district of Istanbul, five foreigners went missing while swimming. Lifeguards saved one, while divers found the dead bodies of the other four. The nationalities of the foreigners were not disclosed.

In the Osmangazi district of the northwestern province of Bursa, a father, trying to save his three children drowning in a dam, jumped into the water on the second day of Eid al-Adha. The children were rescued but the 35-year-old father died.

According to a survey by Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), around 900 people drown across the country each year.

Central Anatolia and southeastern Anatolia – both landlocked - are the regions with the highest drowning cases even though they have no seas.

“People of these regions, longing to swim, try to bathe or swim in every kind of water. Unfortunately, they do it unconsciously and get drowned,” said Sedat Mesci, a local representative of the Turkish Underwater Sports Federation.