Man sleeping next to a cliff falls to death


A sleep outside brings respite to many in rural Turkey as temperatures hit unbearable levels in the countryside. Sadık Saltık was among those fed up with the heat but a dangerous mix of alcohol and a bad choice of location to fall asleep in cost the 63-year-old man his life.

Saltık, a vagrant with a heavy alcohol addiction living in the western city of Balıkesir's Bandırma district, pulled the sofa he used to sleep on in the summer to his favorite location, under a fig tree, while the temperature rose. However, he apparently did not notice where the tree was situated exactly, that was, next to a 25-meter high cliff.

Locals found a sofa stuck in the rocky cliff yesterday morning and the body of the old man at the bottom of the cliff.

Police believe Saltık might have rolled over in his sleep and fell to his death but it has not ruled out the possibility that he might have been pushed off the cliff and the sofa was later pushed to make it look like an accident.