24 Thousand Buildings Collapsed Or Seriously Damaged Due To Earthquake, Turkish Authority Holds Investigation: 113 People Detained

The ruins of buildings in Diyarbakir, Turkey due to the earthquake that hit Turkey. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA)

JAKARTA - Turkish authorities are investigating the collapse of thousands of buildings due to the 7.8 SR earthquake that rocked the country last Monday, while the number of fatalities continues to increase and has touched 34 thousand people.

The death toll across Turkey and Syria due to the earthquake disaster has reached at least 34,179 people as of Sunday, citing CNN February 13.

In Turkey, the death toll from the earthquake has reached 29,605, the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll in Syria reached 4,574. The number includes more than 3,160 in the opposition-controlled part of northwestern Syria, according to the health ministry, the governmental authority of the Government of Salvation.

Syria's death toll also includes 1,414 deaths in government-controlled areas of Syria, according to the state news agency SANA.

Separately, Turkish authorities vowed on Sunday to thoroughly investigate anyone suspected of being responsible for building collapses in the country, ordering the detention of 113 suspects.

Vice President Fuat Oktay said 131 suspects had so far been identified as responsible for the collapse of some of the thousands of buildings razed to the ground in 10 provinces affected by the earthquake.

Impact of the Turkey earthquake in Hatay. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA/Hilmi Hacaloğlu)

"Detention orders have been issued for 113 of them," Vice President Oktay told reporters at a briefing at the disaster management coordination center in Ankara.

"We will follow this up carefully until the necessary judicial process is completed, especially for buildings that suffered heavy damage and buildings that caused death and injury," he explained.

He said the Ministry of Justice had set up an earthquake crime investigation bureau in the earthquake zone province, to investigate the deaths and injuries.

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Murat Kurum said 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed or were heavily damaged by the quake, based on an assessment of more than 170,000 buildings.

Separately, opposition parties accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government of not enforcing building codes, and of misspending a special tax levied after the last major earthquake in 1999, to make buildings more earthquake resistant.

Impact of the Turkey earthquake in Hatay. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA/Hilmi Hacaloğlu)

Related to that, President Erdogan said the opposition lied and spread slander to tarnish the government, hinder investment instead of confronting corruption in cities run by the opposition.

In Adana, state prosecutors ordered the detention of 62 people in an investigation into the collapsed building, while prosecutors demanded the arrest of 33 people in Diyarbakir for the same reason, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

It said eight people had been detained in Sanliurfa and four in Osmaniye in connection with destroyed buildings believed to have had faults, such as moving columns.

Late Friday, police arrested the developer of an apartment complex that collapsed in Antakya as he was preparing to board a flight to Montenegro from Istanbul Airport, with formal detention being carried out the following day, according to Anadolu.

The 12-storey high-end apartment complex was completed a decade ago and contains 249 apartments. There is no information yet on casualties in the building.

The man who was arrested told prosecutors he had no idea why the complex collapsed, saying his desire to go to Montenegro had nothing to do with it.

"We fulfilled all the procedures set out in the law. All licenses were obtained," he said.