The explosion occurred at around 3 p.m. on the roof of a two-storey building on Ataturk Street in the Payas district. No one was injured in the blast, but initial investigations showed six offices in the building opposite, six workplaces in the surrounding area, two vehicles and two homes were damaged.
Firefighters continued to work to determine the cause of the explosion, but the destruction revealed its scale.
He thought it was an earthquake.
Security cameras captured the panicked employees of a dessert shop across the street from the building at the time of the explosion, and the footage showed employees covering their ears and running away from work after the explosion due to the loud noise.
“We thought maybe there had been an earthquake,” said business owner Baisi Kiek, 50. “When you have that big an explosion, of course we panicked. We went outside and saw rubble falling. We realised it was some kind of natural gas explosion,” he said.
Hayrettin Kavak (39), who was at work at the time of the explosion, said: “The other day, when there was a bomb-like explosion, we feared for our lives and ran away. Then we saw debris falling from the building opposite. It was a very bad, violent explosion. “At first we thought it was an aftershock of the earthquake, but thankfully nothing happened to anyone after that,” he said.
