A seven-storey apartment building collapsed in Gebze, north-western Turkey, killing two people and trapping three others under the rubble, officials and state media confirmed on Thursday.
Gebze governor Ilhami Aktas stated all five victims belonged to one family. State-run TRT identified them as a couple and their three children, with 627 rescuers deployed. Rescuers recovered the body of 12-year-old Muhammed Emir Bilir, but the second fatality remains unidentified.
While the cause of the collapse is unknown, Gebze mayor Zinnur Buyukgoz suggested it might be related to nearby metro construction. Gebze lies along the north Anatolian fault line and was hit by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 1999 that killed an estimated 18,000 people.
Experts have long warned that Turkey's failure to enforce modern construction codes poses significant risks in earthquake-prone areas. The collapse follows a 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Sindirgi, Balikesir province, on Monday, which caused at least three already-damaged buildings to collapse, with no casualties reported.
