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ISTANBUL, Aug 23, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Two Dutch teenagers were found dead in their Istanbul hotel room and their father hospitalised, Turkish media reported on Saturday, with initial suspicion falling on a restaurant meal they had eaten.

The boys, aged 15 and 17, were deceased when police and paramedics arrived at the hotel where they were staying, in the Fatih district, near Istanbul's Blue Mosque and Grand Bazaar, according to the NTV television channel.

"When they arrived, ambulance paramedics noted the two children were deceased. The father was taken to hospital by ambulance" in a state of shock, the channel reported.

The three had been vacationing in Turkey and were believed to have gone to the touristy Taksim district for dinner, media said.

The 57-year-old father told police he had gone with his sons to Taksim "but did not eat", the Haber Turk news outlet reported.

Later that evening, after returning to the hotel, the father called out to the boys, who did not respond. A hotel employee, Mehmet Kirdag, heard the father crying for help, NTV reported.

"When I knocked at the door and entered, the two sons were dead, one of them in bed, the other on the floor... When paramedics arrived, the two young men were deceased. The father was in a state of shock," Kirdag said.

Istanbul police have launched an investigation, NTV reported.