Gebze building collapse traps Bilir family, four dead, one survivor

A seven-storey apartment building collapsed early Wednesday in the northwestern Turkish city of Gebze, trapping five members of a single family and prompting a large-scale rescue operation, officials said. Rescue teams recovered four bodies and pulled one survivor from the rubble after hours of searching, deputy interior minister Mehmet Aktas told reporters on Thursday, according to local authorities.

Officials said the family has been identified as the Bilir family. Authorities reported that 18-year-old Dilara Bilir was rescued alive, while the bodies of her younger siblings, 14-year-old Hayrunnisa and 12-year-old Muhammed Emir, were recovered by Wednesday evening. The bodies of the parents were recovered overnight, the deputy interior minister said. Local emergency services deployed hundreds of responders to the scene, with officials saying 627 personnel took part in the search and recovery effort.

Teams from the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate, known as AFAD, and other emergency services carried out the operation amid heavy debris. Local officials said it remained unclear what specifically caused the collapse. Gebze’s mayor suggested that construction work for a...