Five people, including three children, have died after the lower floors of a residential block collapsed on the Asian side of Istanbul, local authorities said on Friday.
Emergency teams pulled nine survivors alive from the wreckage before locating the final victim early Friday morning. The city governor’s office said, “Search and rescue operations in the area under the rubble ... ended after the discovery of the last victim’s body at 6:15 am (0315 GMT).”
The casualties included two girls aged five and 10, a 12-year-old boy, and two adults. The disaster occurred early Thursday when the bottom three storeys of the seven-storey structure collapsed, leaving the upper four floors precariously balanced atop the debris.
Municipal officials indicated that unauthorized structural changes had been made to the property over the years. Istanbul Deputy Mayor Nuri Aslan told reporters that “the building was built in 1987,” adding that “the basement, ground floor and first two floors were built in accordance with the norms at the time, but the other floors were added later.”
Authorities evacuated 55 nearby residents as a safety precaution. According to Turkish media reports, a manager of a shop on the building's ground floor said she had observed cracks in the property as early as April.
Local media reports estimate that as many as 1,200 buildings across Istanbul face the risk of collapse due to substandard materials or flawed construction practices. In August, an unoccupied structure in the city collapsed without causing injuries.
