Turkish authorities are investigating possible negligence following the tragic death of two people on 12 July in Izmir, on Turkey’s west coast, when during heavy rains that caused floods in the city both victims were electrocuted to death while crossing a flooded area that was apparently exposed to electrical wires.
The tragedy occurred last Friday on Enver Dündar Başar Street, when Özge Ceren Deniz, a 23-year-old medical student, fell to the ground fulminated after crossing a flooded street in the rain; immediately her companion, 44-year-old İnanç Öktemay, bent down to help her but he also fell electrocuted after touching her.
Several witnesses approached at the time trying to find out what had happened, but reacted by walking away when they saw that both were dead. After alerting the emergency services, they tried in vain for several minutes to revive both of them through cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but both victims were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Neighbours and merchants had already warned of the danger
The event has since dominated the headlines and front pages of newspapers and TV programs, as preliminary investigations point to an electrical leak near the grates where the two people died; some reports point to the fact that five years ago there had already been reports of exposed wires in the area, something the area’s own shopkeepers had alerted the authorities about.
According to Turkish media reports, Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced yesterday that an arrest warrant had been issued for 29 suspects involved in the tragedy, 15 of whom have reportedly already been arrested. The mayor of the central Konak district where the tragedy occurred, Nilüfer Çınarlı Mutlu, confirmed to the press that the power cables connecting the transformer station to the street distribution panel were not sufficiently insulated, and that they were only 30 cm deep when they should have been buried at least 80 cm deep.
However, one of the main problems of this tragedy is that neither the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality nor the electricity distribution company seem to want to take responsibility for the death of the two people electrocuted during the flooding. While the municipality blames the company for the poor insulation of the cables, the company insists that it has not received any complaints about the installation of the cables, and that the installation of the grates where the electrical leakage occurred is not its responsibility.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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