Two people died and two others were injured in a fire in a residential building next to the Armenian Catholic Church "Holy Savior" in Istanbul's "Beyoglu" district, the Armenian news agency ARMENPRESS reported for BTA.

The fire broke out at 21:45 local time on January 23, the editor-in-chief of the Istanbul-based "Jamanak" newspaper Ara Gochunyan told ARMENPRESS.

He added that a fire brigade team arrived immediately.

The Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Istanbul, Levon Zhekiyan, also arrived on the scene.

"The fire broke out in an old guest house that was under renovation. It's a tragedy. There were 7 people in the guest house, two of them died and two others were hospitalized," Gochunyan said.

He added that there is no information about the cause of the fire.

The fire was extinguished around 2:00 a.m. local time on January 24, BTA writes.

An explosion and fire erupted in a Turkish Black Sea town

"Thank God that the church itself was saved, the flames did not reach the temple," Gochunyan said.

According to him, the two victims - Josephine Ekmekchi and Fehim Atsup - were members of the Armenian Catholic community.

Turkey

dead and wounded

Istanbul

fire

Catholic church