[Photo of the week] Snow, strong winds batter İstanbul, halt daily life

Slippery roads in İstanbul started to take a toll on commuters on Thursday as many passengers were injured in a chain reaction crash that involved at least a half a dozen cars on İstanbul’s Bosporus Bridge.
Losing control of their vehicles on slippery roads, the cars first hit barriers on the bridge then crashed into one another. All lanes of the bridge were closed as a result of the accident, which took place before dawn. The injured were rushed to hospitals by ambulances deployed to the area, with some of them in a critical condition.
All lanes of the bridge were opened to traffic about an hour later, preventing possible chaos as İstanbulites started their morning commute to work.
On Thursday morning İstanbul saw its first snow, coupled with strong winds — particularly in areas close to the Black Sea coast. The snow, which has already brought eastern Turkey to a standstill, intensified in İstanbul later on Thursday, prompting the İstanbul Governor’s Office to close schools on Friday.
Meanwhile, a metrobus en route to Zincirlikuyu on Thursday careened out of the metrobus lane on the D-100 highway due to the snowfall, closing the road to traffic for some time. No one was injured in the incident.
Hundreds of drivers were stuck in traffic in different parts of the city. İstanbul’s Road Maintenance and Repair Directorate spent the entire morning salting the streets and clearing the roads from snow. Turkish Airlines (THY) had to cancel or delay some of its flights out of İstanbul on Thursday due to the heavy snowfall. The municipality also provided shelter from the frigid temperatures to 209 homeless people at the Metin Oktay Sports Complex in Yeniköy.
Heavy snowfall in the country’s eastern provinces resulted in difficult driving conditions, and many roads were closed due to ice.
Flights have been canceled due to heavy snowfall in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, and water pipes in many parts of the city froze. The municipality is using salt on the roads in an attempt to keep them open.