Eleven people have been detained after four members of the same family died from suspected poisoning while on holiday in Turkey.
Cigdem Boceck, 27, and her husband Servet, 38, fell ill 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 popular 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 made from calf intestines and tavuk tantuni, a type of Turkish chicken wrap.
They later bought Turkish delights from a shop in Fatih before returning to their hotel.
Once back at the hotel, Masal and Kadir began suffering from nausea and vomiting.
Both 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 about the journey in a video shared by local news company, Kayseri Haberler.
In 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 constantly vomiting on the way and mom was unconscious and was resting her head on the right 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 care for six days.
Head of the Istanbul Health Directorate, Abdullah Emre Güner announced the father’s death via X on Monday.
A major probe has been launched by Istanbul’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office which, so far, has led to 11 people being detained, including the street vendors the family bought food from.
Initially, detectives were focusing on suspected food poisoning, but evidence has since emerged that the family may have been exposed to pesticides in the hotel where they were staying, Turkish media reported.
Police and prosecutors have a theory that a substance used in a bedbug treatment in a room on the hotel’s ground floor may have reached the family’s room through the bathroom ventilation shaft and poisoned them.
The harmful substance is aluminium phosphide which is a powerful toxic chemical used as a pesticide in agriculture and homes that can cause death if inhaled in high amounts.
Police continued to collect samples from the building for examination after the hotel was evacuated and sealed.
It has not yet been determined if it was the mussels, food at the restaurant or chemicals used by their hotel’s pest control service that caused the family’s deaths.
Among 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 when they were all detained.
Eight of them were to appear before a judge on Monday.
Samples were collected from venues where the family had eaten and are being analysed at the Forensic Medicine Institute.
The bodies of the mother and two children were also sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute to determine the exact cause of 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 loss of all members of the family 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 children, Mustafa Celik, said his daughter and her family were going to visit him after their holiday in Istanbul.
He wants the incident thoroughly investigated and has asked whether others who had eaten at the same establishments had also been affected.
According to BirGun newspaper, two other tourists staying at the same hotel were hospitalised on Saturday after feeling nauseous and vomiting.
Police have removed the two tourists’ belongings from their rooms for analysis.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday evening: ‘The investigation is currently being carried out comprehensively. It will be revealed what caused the deaths .’
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