Pregnant woman dies after balcony fall in Turkey as husband arrested

A woman has died following a fall from a third-floor balcony at a residential block in the Turkish city of Bursa. The woman, identified as Ekram Hassan, was seven months pregnant and is believed to have fallen from her family residence in the northwestern region of Turkey.

Reports suggest the incident took place at approximately midnight on Durmus Street in the Ucevler neighbourhood within the Nilufer district of the city.

Following Ekram’s fall, which left her critically injured, emergency services were summoned to the scene, where they discovered that she had died.

In the wake of her death earlier this week, her 37-year-old husband has been detained by police and placed in custody. He was also reportedly arrested on suspicion of drug abuse.

Ekram’s body was subsequently transported to the Bursa Forensic Medicine Institute, where her precise cause of death was to be established, reports the Irish Mirror.

According to IHA, a local news outlet, criminal investigation teams attended the scene and examined both the interior and exterior of the property.

Reports also indicate that police are continuing to explore all potential explanations regarding the circumstances surrounding Ekram’s death and the events leading up to it.

Additionally, Ekram’s mother-in-law has issued a statement about the incident, in which she conveyed her affection for her daughter-in-law and how much she meant to her.

She said: “I loved you not as my daughter-in-law, but as my daughter.”

Ekram’s death comes amid mounting concern over the number of women losing their lives in Turkey, with the organisation ‘We Will Stop Femicide’ working to monitor the number of women killed in the country.

Le Parisien reported that the organisation states that 215 women were found dead or killed in the first seven months of 2026. These statistics come years after Turkey’s withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention in July 2021.

The Istanbul Convention required that an investigation follow the violent death of a woman.

Concern about femicide rates in the country is intensifying, while Turkey itself does not release official statistics on femicide.

This leaves the task of gathering such vital information with organisations like ‘We Will Stop Femicide’. The organisation reports that 294 women were murdered by men in 2025, with an additional 297 deaths deemed “suspicious”.