The bodies of two parents and their 6-year-old child was found inside an apartment in a suspected case of murder-suicide by cyanide on Friday by the police in Istanbul.

The mayor of Istanbul’s Bakirkoy neighbourhood, Bulent Kerimoglu, said, “It appears that the father poisoned the family with cyanide.

“He was suffering from a severe economic crisis, trapped in serious debt since a very long time.”

Kerimoglu added that forensic experts were investigating the exact cause of the deaths.

The father, a jewellery dealer in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district, was suffering from “depression” due to “an excessive amount of debt following some informal online business transactions,” the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office said.

This is the third case of suicide since last week over alleged financial difficulties.

On Saturday, a family of four, including parents and two children, were killed in cyanide poisoning in Antalya.

The father had left behind a note explaining that he had been having financial problems.

On Nov. 6, two sisters and two brothers were found dead in their Istanbul apartment after cyanide poisoning.

The siblings suffered from financial problems.

Turkey has an ailing economy, high public indebtedness and jobless rates, among other issues.

Nearly 1 million people lost their jobs between August this year and the same month of 2018, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Friday.

More than 70 per cent of the population had outstanding debts in 2018, according to TurkStat.

On Wednesday, Turkey’s media watchdog, RTUK, warned broadcasters against encouraging suicides, criticising some reports of “normalising” and “dramatizing” such cases.

The watchdog vowed measures against content including “violence”.