Tornado kills 4 workers at Antalya building site, governor says

A tornado tore through a construction site in the Fevzi Çakmak district of Antalya, on Türkiye's southern coast, on Monday night, killing 4 workers and injuring a fifth, Antalya Governor Hulusi Şahin said. The storm ripped apart two containers where the men were sleeping, throwing them from the structures. Two died at the scene and two more died later in hospital; the fifth worker was hurt but in good condition.

"We are facing a very unusual natural phenomenon," Şahin told reporters at the scene, adding that no other tornado or storm had been reported elsewhere in Antalya and that surrounding buildings were undamaged. He said the deaths and injuries were caused by the destruction of the containers, not by a crane that also toppled at the site, which he said caused no further casualties.

The storm also damaged the roof of the nearby Fevzi Çakmak Kindergarten. Drone footage showed construction materials and metal formwork scattered across the site, with visible damage to the collapsed crane, Philenews reported. Türkiye's state meteorological service had issued a yellow-code warning for heavy rain in the province before the storm hit.

Emergency medical teams, police, firefighters and the national disaster agency AFAD launched operations at the site. Police continued inspections on Tuesday to check whether anyone else had been hurt, and the circumstances that put the five men inside the containers during the storm were still being examined.

Heavy rain linked to the same weather system flooded streets and underpasses in several districts of Istanbul on Tuesday, disrupting traffic, Turkish media reported. Authorities issued yellow-code warnings for heavy rain across ten provinces, including Antalya, Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa, and deployed thousands of municipal staff and vehicles in Istanbul to deal with the flooding. No casualties were reported there.

Turkish broadcaster NTV Türkiye said authorities issued a fresh warning for Tuesday evening as rain was expected to intensify again over Istanbul, while Cumhuriyet reported the heaviest downpours had returned to the city after an earlier lull.