Alarm raised at an Istanbul hotel, which was evacuated after a Turkish-German tourist family was the victim of a suspected poisoning that killed the mother and two children aged 3 and 6.

All guests at the unnamed hotel in the Fatih district, near the city's historic peninsula, have been transferred to other facilities, the BirGun newspaper reported. It also noted that two other tourists staying at the same hotel were taken to the hospital after complaining of nausea and vomiting.

The family fell ill on Wednesday after eating several popular street food dishes in the Ortakoy neighborhood , a waterfront neighborhood at the foot of a bridge spanning the Bosphorus. They were taken to the hospital, but the two children, aged six and three, died the next day, and the mother on Friday , the Justice Minister said. The father remained in critical condition.

Media reports have been published about the various foods the family is believed to have eaten. But investigators also discovered that a ground-floor room in the hotel had recently been sprayed with pesticides , Hurriyet reported.

Police arrested a hotel employee and two pest control workers , bringing the number of people arrested in connection with the incident to seven.

The family involved was Turkish, but resident in Germany. They had come to Istanbul on vacation.

(Unioneonline/vl)

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