Fierce rainstorms have battered neighbouring Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, triggering flooding that caused at least seven deaths, including those of two holidaymakers swept away by a torrent at a campsite in northwestern Turkey. Ali Yerlikaya, the Turkish interior minister, said four other people were missing after the flash flood at the campsite in Kirklareli province, near the border with Bulgaria. He said about 12 holidaymakers were present when the waters hit. Search teams had located two bodies, he said on Twitter, which is now known as X. “The search and rescue efforts for the missing [four] continue uninterrupted,” he added. TV footage showed rescuers carrying a young girl and an adult to safety from waters which were waist-high in some areas. The rains also damaged and forced the closure of a main road, Habertürk TV reported. In Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, heavy rain flooded streets and homes in two neighbourhoods, leaving at least two dead. About a dozen people were rescued after being stranded inside a library, while some subway stations were shut down. Davut Gül, the governor of Istanbul, urged motorcyclists to stay home. In Greece, police banned traffic in the central town of Volos, the nearby mountain region of Pelion and the resort island of Skiathos as record rainfall caused at least one death, with thigh-high torrents sweeping cars away. The fire department said one man was killed near Volos when a wall fell on him. Five people were reported missing, possibly swept away by floodwaters. Authorities sent mobile phone alerts in several other areas of central Greece, the Sporades island chain and the island of Evia warning people to limit their movements outdoors. Streams overflowed their banks and swept cars into the sea in the Pelion area, while rockfalls blocked roads, a small bridge was carried away and many areas suffered electricity cuts. Authorities evacuated a retirement home in Volos as a precaution. Greece’s weather service said a Pelion region village received 75.4cm (nearly 30 inches) of rain late on Tuesday – by far the highest level recorded since at least 2006. It noted that the average annual rainfall in the Athens region is about 40cm. The country’s minister of climate crisis and civil protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said the heavy rain was expected to ease up after midday on Wednesday. He advised people in affected areas to stay indoors. The storm comes on the heels of major summer wildfires that hit Greece over the past few weeks, with some burning for more than two weeks and destroying vast tracts of forest and farmland. More than 20 people were killed in the fires. The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, blamed both the wildfires and storms on climate change, while conceding that his centre-right government “clearly didn’t manage things as well as we would have liked” on the wildfire front. “I am afraid that the careless summers, as we knew them … will cease to exist and from now on the coming summers are likely to be ever more difficult,” he said on Tuesday. Nikolai Denkov, the prime minister of Bulgaria, said two people died and three others were missing after a storm caused floods on the country’s southern Black Sea coast. Overflowing rivers caused severe damage to roads and bridges. The area also suffered power blackouts, and authorities warned residents not to drink tap water due to contamination from floodwaters. High winds sent 2-metre waves crashing on to beaches at tourist resorts amid torrential rain that flooded streets and houses. TV footage showed cars and camper vans being swept out to sea in the hardest-hit southern resort town of Tsarevo. Authorities declared a state of emergency in Tsarevo and urged people to move upstairs as the ground floors of some hotels were flooded.