Six people were rescued and at least two people died after an eight-story apartment building in the Kartal district on Istanbul’s Asian side collapsed on Wednesday.
Rescue teams are searching for others believed to be trapped under the rubble. People rescued by search teams were rushed to the hospitals to receive treatment.
Parliament Speaker Binali Yıldırım, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and numerous other officials arrived at the scene shortly after the incident.
Yıldırım confirmed two people have died and six residents have been rescued from the rubble of the eight-story building, while noting that the building next to the collapsed compound has been evacuated as part of a security precaution after experts suspected that it might have been damaged during the collapse.
Scores of Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) personnel, fire crews, police and emergency medical teams were on the scene in Cevizli neighborhood. Additional rescue teams were on their way from Sakarya and Bursa provinces to provide additional support.
Cevizli local headman Memiş Dikilitaş told Turkish broadcaster NTV that there was no explosion preceding the collapse, but that the building, which was very old, collapsed on its own.
A few passersby were lightly injured in the collapse.
