Heavy rain shuts down Istanbul, causing flooding and 3 deaths

ISTANBUL (AP) — A heavy downpour has shut down Istanbul, flooded homes and roads and killed at least three people, officials said Thursday, as rescuers worked overnight to save hundreds of people stranded at their workplaces.

The downpour Wednesday night flooded homes and businesses and inundated roads and underpasses, stranding vehicles and causing traffic chaos in Turkey’s largest city.

The Istanbul governor's office on Thursday reported three deaths in the city and said four other people were reported missing. A 14-year-old was electrocuted after stepping in a puddle at a park in the Fatih district, and a 34-year-old slipped on a sidewalk in the Sariyer district and hit their head, local media reports said. The governor's office said the body of a third victim was discovered near another park in the Kagithane district.

Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said that more than 2,700 people who were stranded by the floods were safely evacuated throughout the city.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said that some areas had the highest amount of rain since 1985.

In Sakarya province, around 150 kilometers (93 miles) east of Istanbul, a two-story house that was built on a riverbed collapsed in the floods, HaberTurk television reported. It wasn't immediately known if anyone was inside the structure.

The country’s weather agency has predicted more showers for Istanbul and the surrounding area in the coming days.

The governor’s office extended a schools’ closure order to include Friday, and some state employees were placed on leave Thursday.

Advice issued by the governor’s office late Wednesday asked residents to stay home unless travel was absolutely necessary. Motorcycles were barred from traffic.

A car lies toppled in the aftermath of floods caused by heavy rains in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Commuters arrive to the Kabatas ferry terminal during a rain in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Vehicles lie scattered in the aftermath of flooding caused by heavy rains in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Pedestrians walk along Istiklal main street under a heavy rain in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Huseyin Ozdemir/DIA Photo via AP)

Vehicles are seen next to a partially flooded highway during heavy rains in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Egecan Ozguner)

Vehicles are stranded in a partially flooded highway during heavy rains in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Egecan Ozguner)

Vehicles drive along a partially flooded road during a heavy rain in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Omer Hamza Yildiz/DIA Photo via AP)

Vehicles drive along a partially flooded road during a heavy rain in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Omer Hamza Yildiz/DIA Photo via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party, was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison for the rape and sex abuse of two girls decades ago.

Donaldson, 63, was one of Northern Ireland's best-known politicians until his arrest stunned his political colleagues and wider society two years ago.

He was convicted in June of one count of rape, four counts of gross indecency and 13 indecent assault charges involving two girls between 1985 and 2008. He had denied the charges.

Donaldson led the Democratic Unionist Party, the biggest party in favor of keeping Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, from 2021 until 2024. He resigned as leader of the conservative DUP after his arrest, and gave up the seat in the U.K. House of Commons that he had held since 1997.

Judge Paul Ramsey said that the ex-politician had undergone a “catastrophic descent into disgrace.” He sentenced him at Newry Crown Court, south of Belfast, to 11 years for offenses against one victim and four years for the other, to run consecutively.

“There has not been, and doubtless will not be, one word of regret, apology or shame from this man to at least provide his victims with some crumb of comfort,” the judge said.

During his trial, Donaldson denied all the allegations against him. He said that he was “crystal clear” that he didn't rape one of the girls when she was a child decades ago.

Donaldson’s wife, Eleanor Donaldson, 60, was found to have aided and abetted her husband’s offenses for witnessing the abuse and doing nothing to intervene. Because of mental health issues, she faced only a fact-finding hearing that couldn't result in a conviction.

The two victims testified that Donaldson groped them when they were around primary school age. The older of the two, referred to in court as Complainant B, said he raped her.

The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and U.K. law protects their identities from the media for life.

Donaldson testified that the rape “just didn’t happen."

Complainant B said that in the 1990s, years after the abuse, Donaldson apologized to her “for what had happened in the past.” Donaldson testified that he had apologized to her for making her feel uncomfortable.

Donaldson wrote a letter to Complainant A in 2020 to say he regretted “hurt, pain and distress” he caused. He claimed that the letter did not refer to sex abuse allegations but other behavior.

Donaldson’s lawyer, Kieran Vaughan, said at a presentencing hearing that his client had achieved “significant things in his life.”

“These convictions obliterate all those achievements he has made in his life,” he said.

FILE - Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson speaks to the media during a press conference at Hinch Distillery, Temple, Northern Ireland, on Jan. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)