Two people died and two were injured in a fire that broke out in the Surp Pırgiç Armenian Catholic Church in İstanbul, the Demirören news agency (DHA) reported on Tuesday.
According to DHA, the fire broke out late on Monday in the residential quarters of the 190-year-old church in the Kadıköy district and it was put out by a large number of firefighters who were dispatched to the scene from the surrounding districts.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
While the firefighters rescued four people who were trapped in the building due to the flames, two of them were taken to the hospital later on as a precaution.
Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, the spiritual leader of the Armenian Catholics of Turkey, and Beyoğlu District Governor Mustafa Demirelli went to the scene of the fire to observe the rescue work conducted in the area.
DHA said that a search and rescue operation was carried out in the building after the fire was extinguished, and the firefighters found the lifeless bodies of a man and a woman whose identities have not yet been determined.
The two bodies were taken to the morgue of the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), according to DHA.