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Preliminary Report Points to Hotel Chemical Exposure in Deaths of Hamburg Family in Istanbul

Investigators now focus on a suspected fumigation agent at the Harbour Suites Old City pending final forensic results.

Overview

  • Turkish media citing the forensic institute report say a chemical exposure at the family’s hotel is more likely than food poisoning as the cause of death.
  • Attention has shifted to a bedbug treatment in a ground-floor room, with reports naming aluminum phosphide and a possible spread through bathroom ventilation.
  • The Harbour Suites Old City was evacuated and sealed, and authorities have detained 11 suspects including hotel staff, pest-control workers and street-food vendors.
  • Four vendors face arrest warrants on negligent homicide charges even as some food samples were later deemed consumable, and broader testing of hotel samples continues.
  • Two additional guests from the same hotel were treated for similar symptoms, and a definitive forensic report is expected later in November.