University building collapses due to nearby construction

ISTANBUL

The building of a university in Istanbul has collapsed due to a deep foundation pit opened at a construction site nearby, Demirören News Agency has reported.

“The sustaining wall of the construction site fell late on Oct. 23, causing the building of Arel University to collapse in the metropolis’ Sefaköy neighborhood,” the agency wrote on Oct. 24.

The students of the university and people living in the surroundings were evacuated.

Mehmet Fatih Altan, the head of the university’s Faculty of Civil Engineering, said the owners of the construction site did not lend an ear to their warnings.

“Unfortunately, the pit has stayed open for three years,” he said.

“The only good news about the incident is that no one has been harmed due to the precautions we took before,” the university board said in a statement issued on Oct. 25.

Sedef Demirsoy, one of the students of the university who is forced to get online education due to the incident, said they knew such a thing would happen.

“We witnessed heavy equipment coming too close to our building three times while attending classes. The university board warned them many times,” the student of the Civil Aviation Department said.

Istanbul Arel University is a private nonprofit university established in 2007. The university comprises the following faculties: Medicine, Art and Science, Visual Arts, Economics and Administrative Science, Communication, Engineering Science and Architecture.