Updated at 20:00

TWO WOMEN FROM Northern Ireland have been stabbed to death whilst on holiday in Turkey.

RTE News says the incident took place on the west coast of Turkey in Ismir, a city close to the holiday resort of Kusadasi.

The two women are reported to be in their 50s and are from the Co Down area, according to BBC News. They have been named as Kathy Dinsmore and Marion Graham.

A 17-year-old Turkish boy has been arrested and has reportedly confessed to the killings. A taxi driver and the youth’s father are being questioned by investigators.

The BBC reports that the teenager is thought to have been dating the daughter of one of the victims and that she refused permission for them to marry.

According to the AFP, local reports say that the alarm was raised after the daughter was unable to contact her mother and her mother’s friend. The boy allegedly told police that he brought the two women in a taxi to a forest in Izmir, where they were killed.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said that a diplomat from the Irish embassy in the capital Ankara is travelling to the area to provide consular assistance.

The Guardian reports that the two women were travelling on Irish passports and that one of the women owned a property in Kusadasi. They had travelled into the city of Ismir, where the attack occurred.

Additional reporting by Susan Ryan