Many motorists climbed atop their submerged vehicles and waited to be rescued [Reuters]

The dead included seven women who drowned in a minibus taking them to work on Wednesday, the Anatolian news agency said.

"We are saddened by the loss of lives. There are still some people missing and we are searching for them," Mustafa Demir, Turkey's procurement minister, said on Wednesday.

"There is huge damage to infrastructure."

Sources say that 28 people were killed in two days, including 20 on Wednesday.

Muammer Guler, Istanbul's governor, said more than 20 people were also injured in floods on Wednesday, and added heavy rains were expected to continue throughout the week.

Severe weather conditions have caused two streams to swell and overflow, inundating dozens of homes and workplaces.

Highway demolished

Waters are reported to have risen by more than a metre-high in Istanbul's Ikitelli district, with motorists climbing on top of their vehicles waiting to be rescued.

Hikmet Cakmak, Istanbul's deputy governor, described the scene at Ikitelli as a "disaster" and said four helicopters and eight boats were sent to help the stranded motorists.

Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, is due to travel to Istanbul on Wednesday to witness the damage.

The Istanbul mayor's office said in a statement on Wednesday that around 900
fire fighters and rescuers were deployed in the flood area, backed up by 220 vehicles and 30 inflatable dinghies.

The statement added that more than 1,000 people had been rescued since Tuesday when the rains first battered the western outermost suburbs of Istanbul before moving over the city.

Istanbul is situated on the steep banks of the Bosphorus strait, one of the world's busiest waterways and a major conduit for cargo ships and oil tankers from the Black Sea.

Elsewhere in northwest Turkey, two bridges were demolished by floodwaters on the Bahcekoy-Saray highway.

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