Eleven people have been detained after 4 members of the identical family died from suspected poisoning while on holiday in Turkey.
Cigdem Boceck, 27, and her husband Servet, 38, fell in poor health just two days after travelling from Hamburg, Germany to the Turkish capital of Istanbul with their two children Masal, three, and Kadir, six, on November 9.
Two days later, they left their hotel shortly after midday and took a taxi to Ortakoy, where they ate midye, a well-liked street snack of stuffed mussels served cold with lemon, from a street vendor.
After the midye they each ordered different dishes at a restaurant, including kokorec, a dish constituted of calf intestines and tavuk tantuni, a kind of Turkish chicken wrap.
They later bought Turkish delights from a store in Fatih before returning to their hotel.
Once back on the hotel, Masal and Kadir began affected by nausea and vomiting.
Each children were taken to hospital, with the parents also developing similar symptoms shortly afterwards.
Sercan Tanahuverdi, the taxi driver who claims to have taken the family to the hospital spoke in regards to the journey in a video shared by local news company, Kayseri Haberler.
Within the video, translated from Turkish, he said: ‘The family jumped in front of my vehicle in front of Kadırga Port Park, wanting me to take them to the hospital.
‘The girl was continuously vomiting on the way in which and mom was unconscious and was resting her head on the best rear window.’
Masal, Kadir, and their mother Cigdem, 27, later died in hospital.
Servet was taken to Cemil Taskcioglu Hospital where he was in intensive take care of six days.
Head of the Istanbul Health Directorate, Abdullah Emre Güner announced the daddy’s death via X on Monday.
A serious probe has been launched by Istanbul’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office which, up to now, has led to 11 people being detained, including the road vendors the family bought food from.
Initially, detectives were specializing in suspected food poisoning, but evidence has since emerged that the family could have been exposed to pesticides within the hotel where they were staying, Turkish media reported.
Police and prosecutors have a theory that a substance utilized in a bedbug treatment in a room on the hotel’s ground floor could have reached the family’s room through the lavatory ventilation shaft and poisoned them.
The harmful substance is aluminium phosphide which is a robust toxic chemical used as a pesticide in agriculture and houses that may cause death if inhaled in high amounts.
Police continued to gather samples from the constructing for examination after the hotel was evacuated and sealed.
It has not yet been determined if it was the mussels, food on the restaurant or chemicals utilized by their hotel’s pest control service that caused the family’s deaths.
Amongst those detained were five food sellers, the hotel’s owner and two staff, and three people from the pest control company, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported, without giving a timeline for exactly once they were all detained.
Eight of them were to look before a judge on Monday.
Samples were collected from venues where the family had eaten and are being analysed on the Forensic Medicine Institute.
The bodies of the mother and two children were also sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute to find out the precise reason behind death.
İYİ Parti Çay İlçe Başkanlığı (The Good Party) shared their condolences on Facebook.
In a post translated from Turkish, they said: ‘Our District President Adv. Alperen Sak and our board of directors attended the funeral and conveyed their condolences to the family.
‘The lack of all family members has taken the tragedy to an indescribable point. May Allah’s mercy on the family and we wish patience and fortitude to all their relatives.’
The grandfather of the youngsters, Mustafa Celik, said his daughter and her family were going to go to him after their holiday in Istanbul.
He wants the incident thoroughly investigated and has asked whether others who had eaten at the identical establishments had also been affected.
In accordance with BirGun newspaper, two other tourists staying at the identical hotel were hospitalised on Saturday after feeling nauseous and vomiting.
Police have removed the 2 tourists’ belongings from their rooms for evaluation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday evening: ‘The investigation is currently being carried out comprehensively. It would be revealed what caused the deaths .’
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