A business executive and his wife died and their sons were hospitalized when the couple's eldest son served them sherbet laced with cyanide.

Twenty-one-year-old Mahmut Can Kalkan was arrested after he was treated for a slight case of poisoning. The chemistry student is accused of tricking his parents to try his "new sherbet" in the family's home in the western İzmir's Bayraklı district.

When the couple sipped the cold drink, traditionally consumed in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, they fell ill. Kalkan tried to force feed his brothers, 16-year-old Mehmet Taha and 4-year-old Emir Can with the poisoned drink but it spilled on them and him by accident. Police and paramedics arrived at the scene after his mother Fatma Kalkan managed to alert their neighbors.

The mother and father died later at the hospital while Mahmut Can and his brothers were discharged after treatment. Police detained the young man later.

Media outlets reported that the suspect, who was studying chemistry at İzmir's Dokuz Eylül University, was also involved in online commerce but recently suffered from commercial losses and was having psychological troubles. On his Facebook account, Kalkan says he was working as e-commerce consultant.