Turkish President Erdogan falls ill during live television interview

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fell ill during a live TV interview, making him suspend election campaigning. The transmission was immediately brought to a halt. but Erdogan returned after 20 minutes later to say he had “serious stomach flu”.

“Of course, we sometimes encounter such situations amid such busy work.,” the 69 years old president said.

Within hours of the broadcast, speculation appeared on some social media accounts outside Turkey that Erdogan had suffered a heart attack, a claim his media team dismissed as “baseless”.

President Erdogan is facing his toughest election campaign so far.

The main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been chosen to run for a group of six political parties.

He was among a number of opposition leaders to wish the president a speedy recovery.

Latest polls suggest a close race between the two men and give Mr Kilicdaroglu a good chance of victory in elections on 14 May, with a possible presidential run-off two weeks afterwards.

President Erdogan initially cancelled three appearances in central Anatolia on Wednesday, saying he had been advised to stay home on the advice of doctors.

He then cancelled his scheduled events on Thursday, too, including the opening of Turkey’s first nuclear power station at Akkuyu on the Mediterranean coast.

Source: BBC