Two detained after apartment building collapses in Istanbul

The first three floors of a seven-storey residential building in the Cevizli neighborhood of Istanbul’s Maltepe district collapsed for reasons that have not yet been determined.

Operative Information Center-OMM reports that emergency teams from Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and rescue crews were dispatched to the scene. Their efforts brought 10 people out alive from the rubble, while the bodies of two residents were found.

Istanbul Governor Davut Gül said search-and-rescue operations were continuing without interruption for three more people believed to be trapped under the debris.

Prosecutors have launched a large-scale investigation into the incident. As authorities work to identify those responsible for the construction, law enforcement officers have detained the building’s architect, identified as H.B., and the construction site’s supervisor. Investigators determined that the building’s original owner, identified as D.B., died in 2016.

At the direction of the Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, authorities are identifying officials who signed the construction permit documents at the time. Further procedural steps are expected after suspects are questioned.