FEBRUARY 6 EARTHQUAKES
Separate investigation into collapse of hotel where child athletes died
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Photo: AA
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Prosecutors have decided to investigate the collapse of an hotel in Adıyaman separately from the investigation into other buildings in the city.
Thirty-five people, including members of a children's sports team from Northern Cyprus were killed after the Isias hotel collapsed in the massive earthquakes on February 6. The sixth-grade students were members of boys' and girls' volleyball teams.
The owners of the hotel, Ahmet Bozkurt, Efe Bozkurt and Mehmet Fatih, have been arrested while two hotel managers are sought by the police.
There were a total of 39 people, including 24 minor volleyball players, five teachers, and six parents in the group that had come from Northern Cyprus to Adıyaman for the volleyball tournament in the city between secondary schools. Thirty-five of them lost their lives in the earthquake. The total number of people who were killed in the collapsed hotel was 60.
The North Cyprus Union of Bar Associations announced that the İsias Hotel investigation will be conducted in a separate file, reported Hürriyet daily.
Ersin Tatar, the president of North Cyprus, visited Antep, Maraş, and Adana yesterday (March 1) to offer condolences. "We'll do everything we can to secure justice for the children we have lost under the debris," he said.
The Adıyaman Chief Prosecutor's Office on February 20 refuted the news report that a confidentiality order had been issued on the investigation.
February 6 earthquakesOn February 6, two earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 struck the southern city of Maraş. The first quake in the Pazarcık district at 4.17 a.m. was followed by the second one in Elbistan about nine hours later. The quakes affected 11 cities in Türkiye's south and southeast, as well as Syria's northern parts, where over 5,000 people have died. Türkiye's death toll from the quakes stands at over 45,000 and is expected to increase further, as over 160,000 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, according to government figures. Nearly two million people have been displaced due to the earthquakes. |
(AS/PE/VK)