Four people, including the contractor and the site chief, have been detained in an investigation into the deaths of four construction workers killed when a tornado struck their site in Antalya’s Kepez district late on Monday, Turkish media reported on Tuesday.
The detentions were reported by A Haber on Tuesday morning and later by other outlets including Haberler.com. Reports did not name the detainees or say what the roles of the other two people were. No charges or findings have been announced, and being detained in Türkiye does not mean a person has been charged; investigators can hold suspects for questioning before a prosecutor decides whether to seek a court-ordered arrest or release them.
What happened in Kepez
The tornado hit a construction site on 6199 Street in the Fevzi Çakmak neighbourhood at around 23:00 on Monday, during the heavy rain and strong winds that swept the Antalya coast overnight. It tore apart two containers used as living quarters by workers and threw five workers out of them. According to the reports, the workers were watching the Galatasaray-Fenerbahçe football derby inside the container when the storm struck. A tower crane of about 40 metres on the same site was also toppled.
Two workers died at the scene and two later in hospital. One worker was injured; Antalya Governor Hulusi Şahin, who visited the site, described the injury as mild. Update (Tuesday afternoon): Anadolu Agency reported that the four victims have been identified; three were Syrian nationals and one was Turkish. The injured worker, a Turkish national, is in good condition. The prosecutor’s office is investigating, and the site owner and site manager were being questioned; no charges had been reported. We first reported the incident here.
An unusual, localised event
Şahin called the tornado a very unusual natural event, noting that no storm or tornado had been reported elsewhere in the city and that only this area was affected.
The storm arrived after weather warnings for the province: on Monday the governor had warned of heavy rain for Tuesday, with up to 75 kg/m² forecast in the east of the province, as we reported. Overnight, the same system also flooded greenhouses, roads and some homes further west, in Kaş, Kumluca and Finike.
Residents can follow official warnings from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM) and the Antalya Governor’s Office; in an emergency, call 112. More on daily life in the province is in our Antalya living guide.
Sources
- Antalya’daki hortum faciasında soruşturma: Müteahhit ve şantiye şefinin de aralarında olduğu 4 gözaltı (A Haber)
- Antalya Kepez’de hortuma konteynerde derbi izlerken yakalanan 4 işçi hayatını kaybetti (Haberler.com)
Photo: alonefanky / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
