Istanbul mayor promises reform after deadly floods

ISTANBUL, Sept 11 (Reuters) - Istanbul's mayor pledged on Friday to rebuild areas hit by flash floods that killed 26 people and resisted calls for his resignation over accusations he allowed shoddy construction in Turkey's biggest city.

The death toll shocked Turkey and brought calls for better city planning and supervision by the government, which defended itself by saying this was a natural disaster stemming from the heaviest rainfall in the last 80 years.

Critics say the government, municipality and police were ill prepared despite knowing heavy rain was forecast. They should not have allowed construction of major roads, offices and flats on a river basin in the city of 14 million inhabitants.

A total of 32 people died in the floods on Tuesday and Wednesday, most in central Istanbul.

Pictures of commuters stranded in water-swamped highways near Ataturk Airport weeks before an International Monetary Fund and World Bank meeting have embarrassed the government.

"The State Waterworks Authority and the Istanbul Water and Sewage Authority will focus very intensively on the river basins to solve the problems in those areas," Mayor Kadir Topbas told a news conference.

Scenes of white blankets covering bodies of seven women drowned in a window-less company van carrying them to work infuriated Turks. Newspapers reported on Friday that the police arrested the women's employer for causing death.

Topbas, a ruling AK Party member and serving his second term as mayor, came under fire when he blamed global warming for the floods in Istanbul. His critics said the disaster was avoidable and called for his resignation.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has also been slammed for blaming illegal construction for the disaster. Critics said Erdogan was mayor of the city when the construction was carried out in the late 1990s.

"The city administration which spent its money on tulips rather than infrastructure showed its incompetence in managing this city," the main opposition party CHP's Istanbul deputy Cetin Soysal said in a statement.

Istanbul's ancient district of Sultanahmet, with its famous mosques, waterfront palaces the historic Beyoglu area of narrow streets were largely unaffected.

Topbas urged Istanbul residents to stay home at the weekend due to the danger of new flash floods. (Reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk; Editing by Angus MacSwan) Link...