Five construction workers had gone to bed in two prefabricated cabins at a construction project in Antalya when the wind came for them. Late on Monday a tornado touched down in the Fevzi Çakmak neighbourhood of the Kepez district, tore both containers apart and flung the men out. Two died on the spot and two more in hospital; the fifth survived with injuries and is reported to be stable.
Antalya’s governor, Hulusi Şahin, described a remarkably narrow and sudden twister. It formed over hilly ground, travelled from north-west to south-east and vanished after a few hundred metres, flattening whatever stood in its way. Neighbouring streets were spared, he added. Debris was hurled several hundred metres onto the roof of a kindergarten, nine vehicles were damaged and a tower crane toppled over, although officials stressed the crane did not cause any of the deaths.
According to the governor, three of the victims were Syrian nationals and one was a Turkish citizen. Police, firefighters and the disaster agency AFAD combed the area again at first light and found no further casualties.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation, and the owner of the construction company, the site manager and other responsible staff are being questioned. A key issue is likely to be whether flimsy containers were a safe place to house workers during a storm warning.
The meteorological service had placed Antalya under a yellow alert for heavy rain, which remains in force. The same weather front flooded streets in Istanbul’s Pendik and Tuzla districts, where passers-by pulled a father and his daughter from a car stuck in a submerged underpass. Less than two weeks earlier, record downpours around Istanbul had killed eight people.
