Europe’s busiest airport in Istanbul is closed amid heavy snowfall.
Istanbul:
Europe’s busiest airport in Istanbul was closed on Monday while schools and vaccination centers closed in Athens as a rare snowstorm blanketed parts of the eastern Mediterranean, causing power outages and traffic disruptions. pine is destroyed.
The closure of Istanbul airport – where the roof of one of the cargo terminals collapsed under heavy snow, causing no injuries – grounded flights stretched from the Middle East and Africa to Europe and Asia.
Tourism officials told AFP it marked the first closure of the glass and steel structure since it replaced Istanbul’s old Ataturk Airport as Turkish Airlines’ new hub in 2019.
The first snow of winter created an atmosphere of fun across the squares of ancient Istanbul mosques, where children made snowmen and tourists posed for selfies.
But it has proved a major headache for the 16 million residents of Turkey’s largest city, where slamming cars skidded down steep, sleet-covered streets and highways. turned into a parking lot.
The Istanbul governor’s office warned drivers that they would not be able to enter the city from Thrace, an area that stretches across the European part of Turkey to the western borders with Bulgaria and Greece.
Shopping malls close early, food delivery services shut down and the city’s iconic “simit” bagel stalls stand empty because vendors can’t make it through the snow.
The storm blocked roads through central and southeastern Turkey before making its way into neighboring Syria, where it made it harder for refugee camps in the north of the war-torn country.
Istanbul Airport handled more than 37 million passengers last year, making it one of the world’s most important aviation hubs.
But critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have long questioned his decision to place the airport on a remote area along the Black Sea coast, which is often shrouded in smog in winter.
“Due to adverse conditions, all flights have been temporarily halted for aviation safety,” the airport said in a statement, posting images on Twitter of yellow snow flakes flying around. plane stuck.
The airport, which has extended the suspension twice, said late Monday that service would not resume before 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) Tuesday.
‘Everything is frozen’
Most of the main Turkish institutions remain open.
But in Greece, where overnight temperatures plummeted to -14 degrees Celsius (6.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the storm suspended a session of parliament and forced schools and vaccination centers in Athens to close. door.
Hundreds of motorists have been trapped in cars around the capital – many of them venting their anger on television stations – despite police efforts to block off highway entrances in the capital. north of the city.
“My wife hasn’t had anything to eat since morning. We have a small bottle of water between us,” a driver who identified himself as Christos told Star TV.
“Everything is frozen solid.”
The army, firefighters and police began work to free stranded motorists in the early evening hours.
The climate crisis and Greece’s civil protection minister Christos Stylianides apologized for the chaos and blamed the highway management company for not keeping it open.
A cold spell with sub-zero temperatures and strong winds last hit Athens in February 2021, killing four people on the islands of Evia and Crete and leaving tens of thousands of households without electricity for many days. day.
Kostas Lagouvardos, director of research at the National Observatory of Athens, told ANT1 television that the capital had not seen winters like this since 1968.
Snow falls irregularly on several islands in the Aegean Sea, isolating several mountain villages on Andros, Naxos and Tinos, and blanketing the beaches of Mykonos, a party island in summer.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
