• The hotel was evacuated after the death of a mother and two children

• Investigations continue into the suspected poisoning, with suspects in custody

Local media reported the evacuation of a hotel in Istanbul’s Fatih district after a Turkish–German tourist family suffered suspected poisoning that killed the mother and two children.

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All guests at the unnamed hotel were relocated to other accommodations, according to a Turkish newspaper, which did not specify how many people were affected.

The newspaper added that two other tourists staying at the same hotel were hospitalized on Saturday after experiencing nausea and vomiting, without further details.

The family became ill on Wednesday after eating several popular street food dishes in the Ortaköy neighborhood along the Bosphorus, near a bridge connecting the two sides of the city.

The Justice Minister stated that the children, aged six and three, died on Thursday, while the mother passed away the following day. The father remained in critical condition, according to Istanbul’s regional health chief Abdullah Emre Güner on Friday.

Various media outlets reported on the foods the family was believed to have eaten, but investigators also discovered that a ground-floor hotel room had recently been sprayed with pesticides.

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

Reports confirmed that the family held Turkish citizenship but resided in Germany and had come to Istanbul for a holiday.