Family of four die in Harbour Suites Hotel in Istanbul after suspected bedbug pesticide poisoning
All four members of a young family have died in what is now a suspected botched effort to kill hotel bedbugs with pesticide.
Police in Istanbul have arrested 11 people, including street vendors, in what was initially thought to be a case of food poisoning that caused the deaths of Cigdem Bocek, her children Masal, three, and Kadir Muhammet, six - and now their father Servet.
But investigators now suspect that what killed the family from Hamburg, Germany, may have been the toxic bug spray used in the hotel as they arrived for their Turkish holiday on November 9.
The family had been taken to emergency departments with complaints of nausea, vomiting and dizziness. Surveillance footage from the hospital shows the family walking through the waiting area on November 11.
Hours after they returned to the hotel their condition reportedly worsened dramatically and the two children and their mother were later pronounced dead.
Servet was later taken to Cemil Taskcioglu Hospital where he remained in intensive care for around six days before his death was announced by Istanbul health chief Abdullah Emre Guner on November 17.
An earlier video shows the parents and their children arriving at the hotel in the Fatih district where they were staying.
Local reports said the family checked into the Harbour Suites Hotel and spent the following days eating at various restaurants and street stalls in Istanbul.
Four suspects, including a stuffed mussel seller, a Turkish delight seller, a kokorec seller and a cafe owner, were arrested on suspicion of causing death through negligence.
But the investigation expanded to now include 11 detainees, including hotel staff, as prosecutors examine whether a pesticide used in the hotel may have released a toxic gas into their room.
Police and prosecutors are working on a theory that aluminium phosphide, a substance used in a bedbug treatment in a room on the hotel’s ground floor, may have reached the family’s room through the bathroom ventilation shaft and poisoned them.
Aluminium phosphide is a powerful toxic substance used as a pesticide in agriculture and homes that can cause death if inhaled in high amounts.
Investigators also found that an employee of the pest control company whose products were used in the hotel had no official certification. The hotel was later evacuated and sealed as police continued to collect samples from the building for examination.
Separate reports said two other guests staying at the same hotel, described as an Italian tourist and a Moroccan tourist, were also taken to hospital with suspected poisoning and that police removed belongings from their rooms for analysis.
The bodies of the four victims were handed over to forensic experts to determine the precise cause of death.
The children’s grandfather Mustafa Celik said that his daughter and her family had planned to visit him after their week in Istanbul. He said he would file complaints against whoever was responsible and wants those found guilty to receive the heaviest possible sentences.
The investigation into the deaths of the family is continuing and toxicology tests on samples from the victims and the hotel are still under way.
Story: NewsX