Alan Apartmanı in Samsun's Atakum evacuated after excavation next door brings down its retaining wall

The slide hit at about 8 a.m. on Nov. 8 at the building site in front of the block on 3422nd Street in the Alanlı neighborhood, the DHA news agency reported. Rain and the slope of the ground played a part, according to local reports. AFAD, Turkey's disaster agency, inspected with municipal teams, and the building was emptied and sealed as a precaution. No one was hurt.

Deputy Mayor Suat Yıldız said the wall's collapse opened a void under the foundation, the Samsun news site Gerçek Taraf reported. Inspectors found no cracks in the beams or columns, he said, but the load on the foundation and the void still pose a risk. Whether the void can be filled, for example by injection, and whether residents can return will be decided after a technical review with the municipality's building control directorate, the provincial environment directorate and AFAD. Two or three families with nowhere to go were housed at a cultural center and then a hotel.

Resident Zeynep Güngör said residents had petitioned the municipality and the provincial environment directorate for about two months over the planned dig. The municipality replied that the permit was valid, she said, so they sued at Samsun's 2nd Administrative Court to have it canceled. She argued the lot should have been secured with piles before any digging. The contractor has not been named in reports.

Atakum's slides came up at the Samsun metropolitan council on Nov. 9. Councilor Atila Tekcan alleged that soil reports for the Alanlı area by the same firm contradicted each other on whether a retaining wall was needed; AK Party group deputy chair Recep Kemal Certel said the rules exist and enforcement is the gap. On Oct. 31 a five-story building on 5072nd Street in Atakum's Körfez neighborhood was evacuated after soil gave way around its foundation.