Image source: PIXABAY IMAGE
An apartment building collapsed in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, killing one person and injuring eight, authorities said. The collapse rekindled concerns about the durability of buildings in the earthquake-prone city. Television footage showed firefighters manually clearing rubble from a collapsed five-story building in Küçükçekmece on the city’s European side. Istanbul Governor Davut Gul, who visited the scene, said seven people were initially rescued from the rubble, two of them seriously injured.
Footage showed the collapsing building narrowly avoiding the bus, its front facade falling to the ground and covering the road in dust.
Video: Istanbul building collapse
The governor’s office later said one injured person had been rescued and one body had been retrieved. The 36-year-old building collapsed at 8:40 a.m. (5:40 a.m. GMT), according to the governor’s office. The cause was not immediately clear, but there were no signs of an explosion or earthquake. Only the top two floors were used as residential areas, while the rest were used as businesses.
Footage from a camera across the street showed passengers waiting to board a public minibus narrowly escaping being hit by falling debris.
Last year, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of southern Turkey and neighbouring Syria, killing more than 59,000 people, highlighting Turkey’s poor enforcement of building regulations.
Istanbul, with an official population of 16 million, lies close to the North Anatolian Fault line, where an earthquake in the south of the city killed at least 18,000 people in 1999. City officials say 200,000 buildings in its 3 million people are in urgent need of repairs.
(With input from agency)
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