The hotel where a family of Turkish-German tourists were staying when they suffered suspected poisoning that killed the mother and two children, was evacuated Saturday, local media reported.
All guests staying at the unnamed hotel in the Fatih neighbourhood near Istanbul's historic peninsula were relocated to other hotels, BirGun newspaper said, without saying how many people were involved.
Another two tourists staying at the same hotel were taken to hospital Saturday after coming down with nausea and vomiting, the paper said, without elaborating.
The family fell ill on Wednesday after eating several popular street food dishes in the waterside neighbourhood of Ortakoy, at the foot of a bridge spanning the Bosphorus.
They were taken to hospital but the two children, aged six and three, died on Thursday and the mother a day later, the justice minister said.
The father remained in "critical condition", Istanbul's regional health chief Abdullah Emre Guner said late Friday on X.
Different media reports looked at various foods the family was thought to have eaten.
But investigators have also discovered that a room on the ground floor of the hotel had recently been sprayed with pesticides, the Hurriyet news website reported Saturday.
Police had detained a hotel employee and two pest control workers, raising the number of people held in connection with the incident to seven, it added.
They said the family was Turkish, but living in Germany. They had come to Istanbul on holiday.
Other media reported that authorities in Istanbul have evacuated a hotel in Fatih and detained the owner of a neighbouring bakery following the suspected food poisoning deaths of a mother and her two children from the Böcek family. Police said the latest detention brings the total number of arrests in the investigation to eight.
The police examination at the hotel, where the family was staying before the deaths, has now been completed. Officers inspected belongings brought down to the lobby and collected several items for laboratory analysis before sealing the premises. Guests staying at the hotel were transferred to other accommodations.
The investigation, launched by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, is continuing into the deaths of six-year-old Kadir Muhammet and three-year-old Masal Böcek, who were taken to hospital along with their mother, Çiğdem Böcek, after showing symptoms of food poisoning following a meal at a restaurant in Beşiktaş.
Police confirmed that the owner of the bakery next to the sealed hotel has also been taken into custody as part of the widening probe.