Google Button Μake us preferred on Google

At least one person died after part of a seven-story apartment building collapsed in Istanbul’s Maltepe district on Thursday, while rescue crews pulled 10 people from the rubble.

Emergency rescue teams rushed to the scene and began searching the collapsed section of the building. One person was found unconscious and later confirmed dead, while 10 others were rescued.

The Istanbul provincial authorities said rescue operations were continuing as teams searched for three people who remained missing.

“During the search and rescue operations at the building that collapsed in Maltepe, one citizen lost their life,” the authorities said. “The body of the deceased citizen was recovered from the rubble, while search and rescue efforts continue for three other people.”

Two upper floors built illegally

The cause of the collapse has not yet been established and is expected to be determined through the ongoing investigation.

However, Maltepe Mayor Esin Köymen said during a live broadcast that municipal officials had identified a significant issue concerning the building’s construction.

According to Köymen, the building was constructed in the 1980s and municipal records showed that two additional floors had been illegally added.

“The issue is exactly how many floors are listed on the building’s occupancy permit,” Köymen said. “It is a building constructed in the 1980s, and when we retrieved the project plans from the archives, we found that two floors had been added illegally.”

She said the building’s occupancy permit listed five floors, although two additional floors had subsequently been constructed without authorization.

“We checked our municipal records and found that the building had this problem,” she said.