Turkey sees rise in drownings over Eid holiday

More than 40 people drowned across Turkey in the week including the four-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, police said Tuesday.

According to figures compiled from police reports since July 14, 44 people drowned throughout the country and three others remain missing.

The figures include the sinking of a boat carrying Syrian migrants of the northwest Aegean coast that resulted in six deaths. The group, including women and children, were attempting to reach the Greek island of Lesbos when their boat ran into trouble.

Over the weekend of the end of Ramadan holiday, 24 drowned, including two teenagers who died swimming in rivers in the country’s south as temperatures passed 30 degrees Celsius.

On Monday, two people drowned and another is still missing after their boat capsized in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul and a Pakistani student died off the coast of Mugla province in Turkey’s southwest.