Turkey sees spate of construction-site accidents and collapses

A series of construction‑site incidents occurred across Turkey in recent days. In Istanbul’s Arnavutköy district, a concrete pour caused the adjacent six‑storey building’s elevator shaft wall to burst, flooding the interior with hundreds of kilograms of concrete and prompting the evacuation of ten families. Residents said, “We warned about cracks from the start, but no action was taken.”

In İzmir’s Balçova district, an external‑facade scaffold collapsed while three brothers were working, sending them several metres to the ground; all were injured and taken to hospital. A similar wall failure was reported in a Bursa neighbourhood where a concrete‑pour incident shattered a building wall but, fortunately, no one was inside the elevator shaft at the time, preventing casualties.

Separate fatal accidents were also reported: a 21‑year‑old construction worker fell from a scaffold in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü and died despite medical treatment, and other workers suffered serious injuries in building collapses and landslides in Antalya, Batman and other provinces. Authorities dispatched police, fire, and emergency teams to each site, secured the areas, and began technical investigations into safety compliance and possible negligence.

The incidents highlight ongoing concerns over occupational safety standards on Turkish construction sites, prompting calls for stricter enforcement and inspections.