‘No right timetable to save the five workers’

ERZURUM - Anatolia News Agency

Five electricty workers died in an ice-covered lake as the boat they took to reach a repair job capsized in the middle of the night on April 3 in Erzurum. AA photo

Rescue teams had only a brief window of opportunity to extricate the five workers who died in a boat accident on a frozen lake earlier this week, the Erzurum Governor’s Office said in a statement April 6.

“The time [available] to initiate rescue efforts was unfortunately insufficient for [the workers] to stay alive. About 15-20 minutes would have been needed to rescue the workers alive, which was not possible,” the statement read.

Five workers from the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ) set off on a pedal boat over an icy reservoir lake to repair a power line, but the boat reportedly struck ice on the lake’s surface and capsized.

Workers then clung onto pieces of ice for nearly two hours, crying out for help. Police detained and later released three company officials, while Operations Manager Tuncer Y. was arrested on charges of “causing multiple deaths through negligence.”

Meanwhile, two people were arrested in Istanbul’s Tuzla district in relation to an explosion at a shipyard on April 5. Two people were killed due to the explosion.