As rescuers still pulled some lucky people from the rubble six days after a pair of earthquakes devastated southeast Turkey and northern Syria, Turkish authorities detained or issued arrest warrants for nearly 130 people. Kiya, who was reportedly involved in the construction of buildings that collapsed and crushed their occupants.
The death toll from Monday’s earthquake stood at 28,191 – with another more than 80,000 injured – as of Sunday morning and was certain to rise as more bodies emerged.
As despair turned to anger over slow rescue efforts, attention turned to who was to blame for not better preparing people in an earthquake-prone region that includes a region of Syria already wracked by civil war. was suffering from
Even though Turkey has, on paper, building codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards, they are rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings have fallen on their sides or toppled over residents. Pancakes are done.
Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said late Saturday that arrest warrants had been issued for 131 people suspected of being responsible for the buildings’ collapse.
Turkey’s justice minister has vowed to punish anyone responsible, and prosecutors have begun collecting samples of buildings for evidence of materials used in construction. The quakes were powerful, but victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming poor construction for adding to the devastation.
Authorities arrested two people in Gaziantep province on Sunday, suspected of chopping down columns to make extra space in a building that is run by the state. anadolu agency Said.
The day before, Turkey’s Ministry of Justice announced the planned establishment of an “Earthquake Crime Investigation” bureau. The bureau’s purpose will be to identify contractors and others responsible for construction works, collect evidence, instruct experts including architects, geologists and engineers, and investigate building permits and business permits.
A construction contractor was detained by authorities at Istanbul airport on Friday before being allowed to fly out of the country. He was the contractor for a luxurious 12-story building in the historic city of Antakya in Hatay province, which collapsed and killed countless people.
Detentions may help direct public anger toward builders and contractors, deflecting attention from local and state officials who allowed apparently shoddy construction to proceed.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, already burdened by an economic downturn and high inflation, faces parliamentary and presidential elections in May.
Survivors, many of whom have lost loved ones, have also taken out their frustration and anger on the authorities. Rescue teams have been overwhelmed by the extensive damage to roads and airports, making the race against the clock even more difficult.
President Erdogan acknowledged earlier in the week that the initial response was hampered by the extensive damage. He said the worst affected area was 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and was home to 13.5 million people in Turkey. During a tour of towns damaged by the quake on Saturday, President Erdogan said a disaster of this scope was rare, and again called it the “disaster of the century”.
Rescuers, including crews from other countries, continued to investigate the wreckage in the hope of finding additional survivors who could still cross the ever-increasingly long hurdles. Thermal cameras were used to examine piles of concrete and metal, while rescuers called for silence so they could hear the voices of those trapped.
A 6-year-old boy was pulled from the rubble of his home in the city of Adiyaman on Sunday, 151 hours after the earthquake. The rescue, broadcast live by Haberturk Television, showed the child being wrapped in a space blanket and put into an ambulance. An exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took a deep breath as a group of women could be heard crying in joy.
Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, posted a video of a young girl in a navy blue jumper who was rescued. “Good news at the 150th hour. The team did a rescue a while back. There’s always hope!” he tweeted.
The efforts of a team of Italian and Turkish rescuers also paid off when they pulled a 35-year-old man from the rubble in the badly affected city of Antakya. 149 hours after the first earthquake, a man named Mustafa Sarigül appeared to be safe as he was being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance. ntv Television reported.
State-run Anadolu Agency reported that overnight, a child was also freed in Gaziantep’s Nizip city, while a 32-year-old woman was rescued from the ruins of an eight-story building in Antakya city. As soon as a teacher named Meltem got up and asked for tea ntv,
In Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the first 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday morning, efforts are underway to reach a survivor found by sniffer dogs under a seven-story building. ntv informed of.
However, those found alive remained a rare exception.
A large temporary cemetery was under construction on the outskirts of Antakya on Saturday. Backhoes and bulldozers dug holes in the field as trucks and ambulances laden with black body bags continued to arrive. Hundreds of graves, no more than 3 feet (one meter) apart, were marked with simple wooden planks that stood in the ground.
The picture of the plight across the border in Syria is less clear.
The death toll in Syria’s northwestern rebel-held area has reached 2,166, according to the rescue group White Helmets. The total death toll in Syria stood at 3,553 on Saturday, although 1,387 deaths in government-held parts of the country had not been updated in days.