Retaining wall collapses in Nevşehir: 10 apartments evacuated

In Nevşehir’s Esentepe neighborhood on Şafak Street, a retaining wall belonging to an apartment building under construction collapsed in the early hours of the morning, damaging the adjacent building. The wall, which reportedly collapsed due to the impact of heavy rainfall, tore through the walls of two apartments in the neighboring building, reaching into the interior sections.

Upon notification, health, fire, AFAD, and police teams were dispatched to the area. While teams took security measures in the vicinity, they conducted investigations at the scene. It was reported that there were no deaths or injuries in the incident.

One of the apartment residents, Zabit Işık, stated that they woke up to a loud noise in the early hours, saying, "I first thought lightning had struck. It never crossed our minds that the wall would collapse. We had previously mentioned that the building being constructed here was too high-rise, but the municipality granted a permit. The retaining wall that was built damaged both our building and our neighbor's building across the way. The collapse of the building behind is also a matter of time. There are 10 apartments in the building, and our neighbors have been evacuated. Since my wife is disabled, we couldn't go anywhere. When the wall collapsed, the ground beneath the building became hollow; the building could collapse at any moment. The soil loosened with the heavy rains in recent days, and the wall gave way. Our only consolation is that the building did not collapse completely."

Another apartment resident, Abdullah Çıkrıkçı, said, "We woke up to a loud noise in the early hours. When we looked, we saw that the wall had entered our neighbors' home on the first floor. All the apartment residents went downstairs. It was clear beforehand that this place carried a risk. The arriving teams stated that the building was risky and warned us not to enter. We took our belongings and evacuated the house temporarily."

Apartment resident İbrahim Erdem also stated that they had previously applied to various institutions, saying, "We woke up to a loud noise at night. We had previously made various complaints to CİMER. It is not even clear how many floors the building has. You don't need to be an engineer to see this place. It collapsed after heavy rains and sudden climate changes," he said.

Following the collapse, 10 apartments were evacuated as a precaution, and education at a nearby kindergarten was temporarily suspended. An investigation into the matter has been launched.