Lower thirds:

00:02 Informe Halida Abbaro & Alex Forrest Whiting
00:44 Orhan Oglak | Hotel owner | Istanbul - November 15, 2025
01:46 Arzu Sakul | Istanbul Medipol University
02:13 Rasit Genc | Tour agency owner
02:42 Georg Schmidt | German tourist

Script:

0:00 
The Bocek ((BÖ-jek)) family had been staying in THIS hotel in Istanbul's old town, when both parents and their two children fell ill last week.

0:13
This footage shows them taking a taxi to the nearest hospital. 

0:18
Within a few days, all four of them were dead. 

0:23
Investigators initially thought they'd died from food poisoning.

They suspected the source could have come from eateries in a tourist neighbourhood the family from Hamburg had visited.

0:38
Or from their hotel. The management, though, has denied any involvement.

0:43
+++SOT Orhan Oglak, Hotel Owner (15.11.25)  
 "While the inspectors are inside, we can't talk. We are confident about our hotel. We don't offer any food here. We're not giving interviews. We only offer bottled water here, nothing else."

1:00
Several food vendors were detained but tests found no trace of contamination.

1:08
Then two MORE people staying at the same hotel were hospitalized with similar symptoms.

01:17
Local media reported that a room below the family's had been sprayed with pesticides to kill bed bugs. 

01:26
It's suspected that the fumes could have reached the family's room through a bathroom vent.  

01:34
Medical experts believe the pesticides may have included the toxic chemical aluminium phosphide.

01:44
+++Assistant Professor Arzu Şakul (Sha-kul), Department Head of Medical Pharmacology at Istanbul Medipol University (Turkish)+++
SOUNDBITE (TURKISH) "If aluminum phosphide combines with air, a biochemical reaction produces phosphine gas, and this phosphine gas is truly toxic. It is a derivative of a gas used as a chemical weapon."

02:02
News of the deaths has spread. 

The knock-on effect to tourism is being felt across Istanbul. 

02:11
+++Raşit (Rash-eet) Genc, owner of a tour agency from Kumkapi region (Turkish)+++
“Inevitably, reservation cancellations have occurred. We've heard from everyone, inevitably, that hotel occupancy rates are falling, and the parallel decline in business for our tourism agency business has had a significant impact. God willing, all sectors will find their footing.”

02:36
But not everyone has cancelled their visit.

02:41
VOX POP:
GEORG SCHMIDT SOUNDBITE, male (ENGLISH): 
“We arrived yesterday from Germany and before we just heard about that some people from Hamburg were poisoned here and they died and we were very worried about it and we asked (ourselves) ‘Can we go?’ but we decided to go, we are not so anxious.”

03:00
The hotel at the centre of the investigation remains sealed off.

Several more people have been detained in connection with the deaths.