A Turkish city is to build a monument to remember a Japanese engineer who committed suicide after blaming himself for the breaking of a cable on a major new bridge he was helping to construct, the local mayor said.
The body of Ryoichi Kishi was found on Monday at the entrance of a cemetary in the northwestern city of Yalova with his throat cut and wrists slit, the official Anatolia news agency reported.
According to a suicide note found at the scene, Kishi, 51, said he felt responsible for the snapping of a cable on the bridge and took his own life.
The three-kilometre Izmit Bay bridge, which will cost over US$1 billion, will connect Istanbul to the western port city of Izmir and is one of a number of major infrastructure projects championed by President Erdogan.
Kishi, who was working for a Japanese contractor, was reportedly head of the construction site.
"It [the bridge mishap] may look like a simple incident but they [the Japanese] take these kinds of things very seriously," said Mayor Vefa Salman of the town of Yalova where the bridge is due to come onshore.