Seventy-seven people died and at least 40 are still missing in Turkey after flash floods hit Black Sea regions last week, officials said on Monday.

The death toll has been climbing all weekend as rescue and recovery workers pick through debris left behind by the subsiding waters in the hardest-hit areas.

More than 30 villages still have no electricity and some areas have no running water, according to the disaster and emergencies service.

Emergency teams set up temporary cell phone receivers and transmitters to help with communications, it said.

The devastation across Turkey's northern regions came just as the country was gaining control over hundreds of wildfires that killed eight people and destroyed swathes of forest along its scenic southern coast.

On Saturday, five Russian servicemen and three Turkish citizens died when their Russian Be-200 firefighting plane crashed in a remote mountainous zone in the south.

Scientists say natural disasters such as wildfires and floods are becoming more intense and frequent because of global warming caused by polluting emissions.

Flood waters sweep people away in Bavaria bridge collapse
Berlin (AFP) Aug 16, 2021 –

German police said Monday they were carrying out a major rescue operation in Bavaria after several people were swept away by flood waters when a bridge collapsed.

Four people were rescued from the waters following the incident at Hoellentalklamm, near the border with Austria, a local police spokesman said.

It was unclear whether others were still missing.

According to witnesses, a number of people were standing on the wooden bridge in Hoellentalklamm when it collapsed, although the exact number was subject to conflicting reports.

A popular tourist destination, the Hoellentalklamm is a steep-sided gorge near the town of Grainau, in the southern state of Bavaria.

Massive floods struck Germany last month, costing almost 200 lives.

Houses and their occupants were swept away in the Ahr valley, in the western state of Rhineland Palatinate, the area worst affected by the floods.

In Bavaria, one person lost their life in the flooding.