Rescuers recover bodies of two children after building collapse in Turkey

Man heard calling from under rubble after tragedy in Kocaeli province

Rescuers pulled the bodies of two children from a seven-storey apartment building that collapsed in Turkey’s north-western province of Kocaeli on Wednesday.

Kocaeli Governor Ilhami Aktas said earlier that five people were believed to be trapped in the rubble of the building, all members of one family.

The state-run TRT news channel identified them as a man, 43, a woman, 37, and their three children. Rescuers recovered the body of Muhammed Emir Bilir, 12, but the other body was not immediately identified, it said.

Rabia Bilir, sister of one of those thought to trapped, expressed disbelief over the collapse. “As far as we know, it's a new building. I can't understand how it happened,” she said.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said more than 140 rescuers were given the responsibility of reaching the victims, with one man heard calling from beneath the rubble.

Anadolu said the cause of the collapse was yet to be determined. Rescue teams were removing debris with the help of heavy equipment, occasionally pausing to listen for survivors. The crews were also using eight underground search imaging devices and five rescue dogs.

The building was built in 2012 and housed a pharmacy on the ground floor, while several families lived in the apartments above, Anadolu reported.

The block is located in the Gebze district of Kocaeli province, about 65km south-east of Istanbul on the Gulf of Izmit, the eastern arm of the Sea of Marmara.

Gebze's mayor Zinnur Buyukgoz, speaking to local media, suggested the collapse might be related to the construction of a metro system nearby.

The district lies along the north Anatolian fault line in the Earth's tectonic plates. It was one of the main areas hit during a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 1999 that killed about 18,000 people.