● Storms hit TRNC,

Drivers left stranded; flash floods in Gazimağusa; 35 kilos rain falls on capital; raw sewage overflows in Güzelyurt

TORRENTIAL rain lashed Lefkoşa on Wednesday leaving roads under water and shops flooded.

Around 35 kilos of water per square metre fell in the capital in just one hour at around noon, catching many unprepared as they sought to keep dry using pieces of cardboard and plastic bags.

Drivers on some roads were stranded as Lefkoşa Turkish Municipality workers worked to unblock drains, although Mayor Mehmet Harmancı insisted that no roads had been closed as a result of the downpour. The city’s industrial zone, which has been hit by flooding in the past, coped “really well” with the rain, Mr Harmancı said.

Other parts of North Cyprus that also received heavy rainfall on Wednesday were Doğancı, Yeşilırmak, Lefke, Gemikonağı, Mallıdağ and Gaziveren, according to data from the Met Office. Last Friday Gazimağusa was also hit by flash floods that “almost turned roads into rivers,” CyprusToday’s sister newspaper Kıbrıs reported.

The main Salamis road was badly affected, along with the entrance to the town’s small industrial estate.

Gazimağusa Municipality and Civil Defence teams pumped away the rainwater in a “very short period of time” and “ensured the safety of citizens” it was reported. Meanwhile residents in Güzelyurt said that raw sewage has been overflowing into the Güzelyurt river recently after rainwater there caused a sewage pumping station to “exceed its capacity”.

Güzelyurt Mayor Mahmut Özçınar admitted the “technical problem” to which he said there was “no solution”. The wastewater was flowing “200m to 300m away from residential areas”, he added.