Avalanche from Turkish rooftop buries pedestrians

Passers-by rushed to rescue an unlucky pedestrian who was buried when snow sliding from a mosque roof in Turkey quickly turned into a miniature avalanche.

Dozens of people were milling around a busy street in Rize on the Black Sea when snow started dropping onto the footpath on Monday.

The crowd scatters as about a half-metre of snow which had accumulated on the roof suddenly pours down onto the ground.

CCTV shows a group of men then rush forward to frantically dig out someone buried by the immense blanket of snow.

Two women were injured, authorities said.

Elsewhere in Turkey, several different phone videos showed a frozen mass of snow edging forward from a five-storey building before plummeting to the ground.

Suddenly the mass of snow breaks off and plummets to the ground, sending pedestrians running for safety.

In central Turkey, a bus crash that killed seven has been blamed on the unusually icy conditions.

Temperatures have dropped down to -37C in the intense cold weather this week.