Heavy snowfall forced hundreds of schools to close across the country on Thursday, and extreme weather conditions brought major air, rail and road transport systems to a halt, affecting thousands.
Istanbul government announced that the schools in the city will be closed again for Thursday. Along with Istanbul, schools in Kocaeli, Sivas, Niğde, Yozgat, Karaman and Sakarya provinces also will be closed on Thursday.
The extreme weather-which particularly hit Istanbul’s European side and Bosporus areas-led Turkish Airlines to cancel 334 domestic and international flights on Wednesday and Thursday.
Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin has warned Istanbulites not to go outside unless necessary.
Mayor Kadir Topbas said that almost 460 homeless people had been given shelter in sports halls and that 15,000 tons of salt had been used to keep roads clear.Icy roads caused more than 800 traffic accidents in the city, resulting in disruption on main routes. Turkey’s National General Meteorology Directorate had predicted on Tuesday that snowfall would stop on Thursday midday local time but that it would start snowing again that night until Friday morning.
Source Sabah