06.11.2026 01:31
In Istanbul's Sultangazi district, allegedly, following pile work at a school construction site, a landslide caused a crater about 4.5 meters deep in the garden of the adjacent housing complex. Cracks and collapses occurred on the basketball court where children play, and residents of the complex, saying there were ground separations around the buildings, asked the authorities to conduct a soil survey.
A landslide occurred during construction work in Sultangazi, Istanbul. Due to the landslide, a pit approximately 4.5 meters deep formed in the garden of the adjacent housing complex.
The incident occurred next to an ongoing school construction in Sultangazi. According to claims, after pile work in the construction area, a landslide caused a pit about 4.5 meters deep in the garden of the neighboring housing complex. Cracks and collapses occurred on the surface of the basketball court where children play. Following the incident, worried residents of the complex asked authorities for help, stating that ground separations had also formed around the buildings.
Housing complex manager İsmail Gürçay said, “Collapses occurred here due to the construction. The ground beneath the court where children play has emptied. We are worried. The construction site poured 45 tons of gravel, but it still has not filled. I cannot blame them either; they are dealing with it, but they come intermittently. Landslides and cracks have formed in our complex. The winter season has not even arrived yet, but the rains have started. We are afraid that children will be buried under the ground where they play. We want the authorities to take an interest.”
CRACKS FORMED IN THE GARDEN, DOORS DO NOT CLOSE
Housing complex resident Banu Ergin said, “I have lived here for 17 years. Until today, we had no such problem. We want urban transformation, but we could not reach an agreement. My house is right in the next block. We see almost the greatest shaking and damage. In my house's garden, there are separations in the ground between the building and the garden. This area was about 4.5 meters deep. At first it was the size of half a room. When we looked the next day, it had grown even more and had almost reached the size of a room.”
Stating that the collapse occurring in the morning hours prevented a disaster, Ergin said, “Thank God it happened in the morning. If it had happened at the hours when children leave school and play, God forbid, it could have caused the death of a child. We are afraid this place will collapse. We have also started experiencing some problems in our buildings. Our doors now stick. We have difficulty opening and closing our exterior doors and the doors of the storage areas. These problems emerged after the construction. I cannot know whether the construction did it. People here are taking precautions; they built retaining walls and drove bored piles. However, we are worried about our safety of life.”
THEY WANT A GROUND SURVEY FROM THE AUTHORITIES
Ergin, who wants the authorities to conduct an inspection, said, “We want urban transformation. At least let them come from the building inspection and survey this ground. Let them tell us, ‘There is nothing wrong with yours, your building is risk-free,’ and we can be at ease. We do not want anything else. If it were not for the construction workers and engineers, we probably could not have had this place closed; we would have done it with our own means. We have no safety. The trees were cut down, the paving stones were crushed. The inside of the complex is in a terrible condition.”
Meanwhile, the landslide that occurred in the construction area and the housing complex garden, the deep cracks in the ground, and the sections where the ground beneath the basketball court emptied were captured from the air with a camera and drone.