Around 5:40 a.m. on Oct. 8, three floors of a seven-story building collapsed in Maltepe’s Cevizli neighborhood. According to the governorate, the building dated from 1987, with a business on the ground floor and 12 apartments on the upper floors; 14 people lived in the four apartments in the collapsed section, and 10 were rescued alive. Governor Davut Gül said that, according to population records, 33 people lived in the building. The death toll was reported as two, then five; Hürriyet wrote that the search continued for one person, and Habertürk and Haber7 wrote that the last person had also been found. The architect and site manager are in detention. Mayor Esin Köymen said the top two floors were illegal; the governorate did not confirm (Hürriyet, Habertürk, Haber7, Ekonomim, Sözcü, Milliyet).
In Istanbul, which sits on an earthquake belt, the problem of old buildings and illegal floors is back on the agenda; the cause of the collapse will become clear in the expert report.
If you live in a building from the 1980s, you can ask the municipality about the building inspection record, whether there are illegal floors, and the ground conditions.
According to officials, responsibility lies with the building owners, the architect and the inspectors; a judicial process has been started.
According to critics, somewhere in the chain of permits and inspection, officials looked the other way over an illegal floor; the system needs to be questioned, not just individuals.
Differences in the death toll are the nature of emergencies; confirm the latest official figure with the governorate. The illegal-floor claim is a mayor’s statement; do not pin down the cause before the expert report arrives.
Hürriyet, Habertürk, Haber7, Ekonomim, Sözcü, Milliyet, Nefes, Onedio (Oct. 8, 2026)
Three floors of a seven-story building collapse in Maltepe: death toll rises to 5, architect and site manager detained
The building dated from 1987. The mayor said the top two floors were illegal; the governorate did not confirm this detail.
Around 5:40 a.m. on Thursday, three floors of a seven-story building collapsed in the Cevizli neighborhood of Istanbul’s Maltepe district. According to the governorate, the building dated from 1987 and had a business on the ground floor and 12 apartments on the upper floors; of the 14 people living in the four apartments in the collapsed section, 10 were rescued alive, and search and rescue work continued under the coordination of AFAD (Hürriyet, Habertürk, Haber7, Ekonomim, Sözcü). Governor Davut Gül said that, according to the Population Registration System, 33 people lived in the building in total.
The death toll was updated during the day: first two, then five. Hürriyet wrote “5 dead, search continues for 1 person”; Habertürk and Haber7 reported that the body of the last person sought in the rubble had also been reached. There is an inconsistency among the sources, and DailyDrop gives the figure of five “according to the latest reports.” The building’s architect and site manager were detained.
Maltepe Mayor Esin Köymen said that the building’s top two floors were illegal additions made after the occupancy permit; this statement comes from the mayor, and the governorate’s announcement makes no mention of illegal floors. Work was halted for a time over a suspected shift during the search; Governor Gül said the building would be demolished in a controlled way once the search was over. The expert report will show the technical cause of the collapse.