A 74-year-old woman was killed and her 68-year-old brother was rescued from the rubble after an old two-storey building collapsed in the centre of Zonguldak on Oct. 21, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cause.
Zonguldak, a coal-mining city on Türkiye’s western Black Sea coast, has an ageing housing stock built on hilly and difficult ground. The collapse took place on Sütliyen Street in the Meşrutiyet neighbourhood of the central district.
Two people trapped
Zonguldak Governor Osman Hacıbektaşoğlu said the reinforced-concrete building came down at 17:54 local time for reasons not yet determined, trapping two people. Teams from AFAD, Türkiye’s disaster and emergency management authority, along with firefighters, police, paramedics and the health ministry’s national medical rescue team (UMKE), were sent to the scene.
Rescuers pulled Kenan Akçaharman, 68, out of the debris alive and took him to hospital. The governor, who later visited him, said his condition was good. His sister Türkan Akçaharman Özhan, 74, was found dead. Another brother, Kemal Akçaharman, 72, was reportedly not at home when the building fell, AA said, while Özhan’s son was said to be in Malatya at the time.
Second incident on the same street
The collapse came only days after part of a derelict building on the same street gave way on Oct. 17, partly because of heavy rain, according to AA. After the latest incident a neighbouring house was evacuated as a precaution, and the governor said inspections in the area would continue.
Hacıbektaşoğlu pointed to both the city’s ground conditions and its ageing buildings as a problem, and said urban transformation was the solution. In Türkiye, urban transformation (kentsel dönüşüm) refers to state-backed programmes to demolish and rebuild buildings considered at risk, often with support from the housing agency TOKİ. The government says it has renewed millions of homes under these schemes, as we reported in our story on Türkiye’s urban renewal figures.
Building safety in focus
Building collapses outside of earthquakes have drawn renewed attention in Türkiye this year. Five people died when a residential block collapsed in Istanbul’s Maltepe district, prompting fresh calls for inspections of older stock. In Istanbul, the municipality and central government also run grant and loan programmes such as the "Half is on us" urban renewal support, which has been extended to the end of 2027.
For foreigners buying a home, the age, construction year and earthquake-resistance report of a building are key checks before signing. Our guide to buying property in Türkiye as a foreigner explains what to look for.
Sources
Photo: Wiki leylek / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
