The holiday turns into a tragedy. Three people staying at a hotel in Istanbul’s historic center died after possible poisoning from pesticide spraying, according to local media. These three people are a family of Turkish-German tourists.
The four members of the family – Turkish citizens living in Germany, and on holiday in Istanbul – fell ill on Wednesday after eating several popular dishes in the Ortaköy district, on the banks of the Bosphorus. They were hospitalized, but the two children, ages 3 and 6, died Thursday and the mother died Friday, according to the Justice Department.
The father was in “critical condition” on Friday evening, according to an X message from Istanbul regional health chief Abdullah Emre Guner.
Various media outlets examined the dishes the family allegedly ate, suspecting food poisoning. The restaurant where the family ate was even sealed.
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Pesticides sprayed at the hotel in question?
But two other tourists staying at the same hotel – whose names were not published – were hospitalized on Saturday after experiencing nausea and vomiting, the BirGun newspaper said.
Investigators found that pesticides had recently been sprayed in a room on the ground floor of the hotel, the Hürriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.
Police arrested a hotel employee and two pest control workers, bringing the number of people detained in connection with the case to seven, according to the same source. Four people have been arrested as part of the investigation for suspected poisoning.
All guests were moved to other hotels, the BirGun newspaper said, without saying how many people were affected.
