In this week’s round up of the local news couple marry in greenhouse, mystery shooting leaves two garage attendants dead, turtle threat publicised, tremendous plan and tractor jack-knife kills one.

Tunnel of Love

A young Turkish couple in Çatalarık got married in an unusual venue this week.

The wedding invitations had gone out, but they couldn't find a hall to hire for the reception, so the young bride's father volunteered the use of the large plastic tunnel in which he grows tomatoes.

He said the price for the crop was so low he may as well chuck the plants and use the tunnel for the wedding instead. So that was what they did.

The band played and 300 people danced the night away in the plastic tunnel.

Mystery Shootings

Early last Thursday morning two men working the pumps at a petrol station on the main Antalya road were both shot and killed with a shot gun.

A regular customer found them when he arrived to fill up his vehicle and called the police. The latter are baffled as to the motive for the killings and no-one has yet been arrested.

Turtle Threat Publicised

The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) announced that plastic bags which end up in the sea are a main cause of death for loggerhead turtles.

WWF has produced figures for 2008 which show that of 220 known turtle deaths that year all over the world, no less than 143 (65%) were caused by the turtles swallowing plastic bags thinking they were food.

Tremendous Plan

And the Forestry Commission hit the headlines last week.

Firstly they announced an ambitious planting plan for areas adjacent to Fethiye, which they intend to complete by the end of 2009.

They will plant 220 young trees within an area of 150 hectares and then sow no less than 25 tons of cedar seeds on another 100 hectares.

Man Crushed after Crash

Five Forestry Commission workers loaded a trailer with felled wood and set off back to base in the pouring rain.

The tractor-trailer combo jack-knifed and turned over.

One man was crushed to death under the trailer and the other four are now all satisfactory in hospital.