Mom Died in 7-Story Elevator Plunge as Husband Tried to Pry Open the Doors

A woman died after her apartment building’s elevator plunged multiple stories and landed in the basement.

According to reports obtained by the Daily Mail and Turkish news outlet NTV, Pelin Yasot Kiyga was killed on Sept. 30 inside her 11-story apartment building in Tarsus, a city located in Mersin Province of Turkey.

The mother of one was leaving her seventh-floor apartment to go to work when the elevator began to malfunction, the outlets reported. Security camera footage of the incident shows her husband, 34-year-old Gokhan Kiyga, trying to pry open the elevator’s doors after she called to tell him that she was stuck.

Gokhan can also be seen using his cell phone to call for help as his wife is in the elevator. According to the outlets, the pair heard a loud bang and the elevator cabin jammed before eventually falling down the shaft, along with a number of concrete counterweights.

Gokhan injured his foot in the incident as he was running to the basement to find his wife. Firefighters removed Pelin from the elevator wreckage before transporting her to a local hospital for treatment, where she was pronounced dead.

The Tarsus District Governorate confirmed the incident in a statement.

“Our citizen, who was seriously injured as a result of the concrete blocks of the elevator cabin weight accelerating towards the top of the elevator cabin and falling to the ground together with the cabin, lost her life despite all interventions in the hospital to which she was taken,” the agency said, per NTV.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

According to NTV, the Tarsus Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the woman’s death.

Police have questioned 17 people in the case thus far, including representatives from the elevator company, the property manager and maintenance supervisors.

Three people have been taken into custody, the Turkish outlet reported, including the former and current managers who were responsible for the elevator’s maintenance, as well as the property manager.

NTV also reported that allegations have surfaced that residents of the building had made complaints in a WhatsApp group about the elevator malfunctioning for more than one month leading up to the tragedy.

The exact cause of the accident is currently unknown, investigators told the outlet.