Istanbul building collapse kills five, including children

Five people, including three children, were killed after the lower storeys of a building collapsed in Istanbul, officials said Friday.

The collapse occurred early Thursday on the Asian side of the city, the Istanbul governor's office said. It said search and rescue operations ended after the last victim's body was found at 6:15 a.m. local time on Friday.

Officials said two girls aged five and 10, a boy aged 12 and two other people died. Nine people were pulled alive from the rubble.

The bottom three storeys of the building caved in, leaving the top four storeys perched on the rubble.

Nuri Aslan, Istanbul's deputy mayor, said the building was built in 1987. He said the basement, ground floor and first two floors were built according to the norms at the time, but other floors were added later.

Authorities evacuated 55 people living around the site as a precaution. Turkish media reported that the manager of a shop on the ground floor said she had noticed cracks in the structure since April.

Local media estimate that up to 1,200 structures in Istanbul could collapse because of faulty construction or materials. An empty building collapsed in the city in August without causing casualties.