(Adds details, colour) DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Flash floods caused by torrential rain have killed 21 people across southeast Turkey, triggering a major rescue operation, officials said on Wednesday. Fourteen people died when floods swept away a minibus in Cinar on the road from the region's largest city Diyarbakir as it travelled to a wedding in neighbouring Mardin province. The driver and three passengers managed to escape. Another three people were killed in floods in Diyarbakir's Bismil district after hours of heavy rain overnight swept away many vehicles. Six people were missing there. Helicopters and boats supported rescue efforts in Cinar and Bismil, bringing to safety 300 people stranded in their homes. Road diggers and trucks were working to reopen the main road through Cinar which was cut off by the floods. Meteorological authorities warned that heavy rain was likely to continue in the region for the next 24 hours. Television footage from overnight showed locals carrying children through flood waters to safety while rowing boats rescued stranded groups. Others started on clean-up work, baling water out of houses and digging out vehicles trapped in deep mud which was swept onto roads by the floods.Many animals died in the flooding. Authorities sent a 25-strong search and rescue team to help with relief efforts in the southeastern province of Sirnak bordering Iraq, where four people died, including two infants. Some houses were also damaged in the floods. Among the dead in Sirnak was a 70-year-old killed by falling debris from a house.
