10 workers killed at Istanbul construction site
New Straits Times Online, 7 September 2014
ANKARA: Ten Turkish workers were killed when a lift fell from the 32nd storey of a building and crashed to the ground at a central Istanbul construction site, local media reported today.
Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu told Hurriyet newspaper an investigation had been launched into the incident, which occurred at around 7.45 pm local time (1645 GMT) on Saturday.
“Judicial authorities will publicise what was missing in terms of work safety,” he was quoted as saying.
The incident happened at a construction site for a 42-storey housing block in Istanbul’s central Mecidiyekoy district. Hurriyet reported that 36 of the building’s floors had been completed.
Authorities said eight people have been detained in connection with the incident.
Today, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the workers’ deaths “very painful and very saddening.”
“The investigation will be carried out in detail,” he told reporters in his home city of Konya in central Anatolia province.
The incident put Turkey’s poor record of workplace safety under further scrutiny.
In May, 301 miners died in the western town of Soma in what was Turkey’s worst ever industrial accident.
Most of the dead were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Turkey has the world’s third highest rate of deadly workplace accidents, according to the International Labour Organisation.
-- AFP