Newsroom
The sudden deaths of a German-Turkish family vacationing in Istanbul are now being linked to chemical exposure inside their hotel, shifting the investigation toward a possible pesticide leak rather than food poisoning.
The family of four, visiting from Hamburg, fell critically ill between Nov. 13 and 17. The mother and two young children died first; the father passed away days later. Early on, authorities suspected they may have eaten contaminated street food, and several vendors were briefly detained. That theory has now been dropped.
According to Turkish media, initial forensic tests point toward chemical poisoning, with investigators examining whether a pesticide used to fight a bedbug infestation in rooms below may have released phosphine gas that drifted into the family’s room through the hotel’s ventilation system.
The hotel was evacuated after the incident, adding weight to concerns that aluminum phosphide, a substance meant for agricultural storage facilities, not hotels, may have been used. When the compound reacts with moisture, it releases a gas potent enough to kill pests… and dangerously toxic to people. The family reportedly suffered symptoms consistent with inhaling the gas, including violent vomiting and coughing up blood.
Health experts in Turkey say this is not an isolated issue. Misuse of industrial pesticides has caused fatal accidents in the country before, including a 2023 incident involving bedbug treatment that killed a mother and child. Similar tragedies have been reported abroad, such as a 2015 case in Canada where illegal bedbug chemicals killed two children.
Full toxicology and chemical analyses are still underway, but investigators are already treating the hotel’s pest-control practices as the central focus.
For now, the Istanbul hotel remains sealed off as authorities try to confirm whether a routine attempt to kill bedbugs ended up killing an entire family.
