This February an eight storey building collapsed in Istanbul, killing just one person but injuring and trapping many others and crushing cars. At least 4 people are still missing.

The building had a textile workshop operating without a licence on the lower floors, and was only meant to be 5 stories tall but an extra 3 stories had been added illegally to make 14 flats housing 43 people.

I interviewed some teachers from Chantry Middle School to find out thoughts on this. Mrs S Buckton, who teaches geography, said “It isn’t right and companies should do something about these factories. There needs to better health and safety in third world countries to avoid needless loss of life.”

I then interviewed Mrs Haxell, who teaches English. She said “ There were three extra illegal stories. This shows how important it is to have good emergency services and to obey the law.”

Finally, I interviewed Mr Shaw, associate assistant headteacher. He said “ Not right, they didn’t have a licence to run the factory and people that worked there probably didn’t have the correct work visa/permit. The building operators knew they were in the wrong. How do they know for definite it was empty? The person at fault is the owner.”

By Emily, Y7