Eid Al-Adha Ends With 100 People Killed in Turkey

The nine-day holiday for this year's Islamic Feast of the Sacrifice, or Eid Al-Adha, concluded in Turkey on Sunday with 100 people killed and 200 injured in traffic accidents across the country during the period, the Anatolia News Agency reported on Sunday.

The Feast of the Sacrifice, one of the two major Islamic holidays, is marked by four days off work -- and when combined with weekends usually it is added up to at least a week of time off. This year the Feast of the Sacrifice gave the Turkish population a big nine-day break.

With the chance to visit relatives for an extended period of time or go on vacation in tourist resorts, many traveled to other cities, causing a heavy traffic in the country's highways. The traffic situation became from bad to worse as a result of the sudden change in weather conditions near the holiday end. The coastal regions of the Aegean, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas experienced rain, while the interior parts of Turkey and the Marmara region had heavy snowfall. Temperatures ranged from -20 C in the east to 6 C in Istanbul.

On Saturday, four people died and 42 were injured in a traffic accident on the Ankara-Istanbul Highway when a tourism bus crossed over barriers on slippery road.

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