Parents of Cyprus school volleyball team players killed in Turkish quake testify against hotel owner
A hotel owner and 10 other people are standing trial accused of negligence over the deaths of 72 people, including players from a school volleyball team in breakaway northern Cyprus, who perished when their hotel crumbled during a powerful earthquake that struck Turkey last year
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Parents of school volleyball team players who perished when their hotel crumbled in last year’s powerful earthquake testified in the trial against the hotel’s owner Thursday, with one father describing how hopes of finding his two children alive quickly turned to despair.
The hotel owner and 10 other people are standing trial accused of negligence over the deaths of 72 people, including members of the team who had traveled from the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus to attend a competition.
A total of 39 students, their teachers and parents were staying in the Isias Grand Hotel in the city of Adiyaman when the region was hit by a 7.8-magnitude quake and an equally strong aftershock. Thirty-five of them died. A group of tourist guides were also guests at the hotel.
The trial, which opened on Wednesday, is the first relating to the Feb. 6, 2022 earthquake that hit Adiyaman and 10 other provinces in southern Turkey, leaving more than 50,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
