UPDATE - Turkey ready to help flood-hit Greece

UPDATES DEATH TOLL, ADDS TURKISH DEPUTY PREMIER'S PHONE CALL WITH GREEK COUNTERPART, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Sorwar Alam and Ali Kemal Akan

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey is ready to help Greece following the deadly floods in Athens, according to a Foreign Ministry statement released early Thursday.

Turkey, in solidarity with Greece, is ready to provide any kind of assistance, the statement read.

The fresh floods killed at least 16 people on Wednesday after torrential rains struck the Attica region, which includes the capital, Athens.

"We learned with sorrow that the floods that hit the Attica region of Greece on 15 November 2017, caused loss of life and material damage," the Ministry said.

Ankara extended its "sincere condolences to the relatives of those who lost their lives as well as to the Greek people, and wish speedy recovery to the injured," it added.

Turkey's Greece-born Deputy Prime Minister Hakan Cavusoglu phoned his Greek counterpart Ioannis Dragasakis later on Thursday to express Turkey's sympathy, according to a statement from Cavusoglu's office.

Cavusoglu offered Turkey's help in search and rescue operations, and Dragasakis said that he would deliver Cavusoglu's offer of help to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the statement said.

Cavusoglu was born in 1972 in Deilina, a village near the city of Komotini (Gumulcine in Turkish), where many of his relatives remain. He became one of Turkey’s deputy prime ministers in a major cabinet reshuffle in July.