Five dead after Istanbul building collapse, rescue ends

A partial collapse of a seven-storey building in Istanbul’s Maltepe district killed five people, and rescue teams pulled nine others alive from the rubble before ending their search on Friday morning, the Istanbul Governor’s Office said. The lower three floors of the building gave way before dawn on Thursday, leaving the upper four floors perched above the collapsed section. The cause was not immediately known. The governor’s office said rescue operations ended at 6:15 a.m. local time on Friday after the last victim’s body was found. The five people who died were two girls, aged five and 10, a 12-year-old boy and two other people, according to the governor’s office. Earlier reports, published while crews were still searching, gave lower death tolls and different estimates of how many people remained trapped as rescue efforts continued. Residents on the unaffected upper floors were evacuated, and nearby buildings were also cleared as a precaution. The collapse prompted a large emergency response involving firefighters, police, medical teams and search personnel.