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Building contractors arrested in Turkey after deadly earthquakes

Rescue workers on job in Osmaniye, Turkey after country witnesses deadly earthquake on February 6, 2023. [Photo: Wikimedia]

As rescuers continue to work on ground to pull more survivors from beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings since last six days, Turkish officials detained or issued arrest warrants for some 130 people allegedly involved in the construction of buildings that toppled down and crushed their occupants.

The death toll from Monday’s quakes stood at 28,191 — with another 80,000-plus injured — as of Sunday morning and was certain to rise as bodies kept emerging, a report by PTI said.

The report quoting the country’s Justice Minister has vowed to punish anyone responsible, and prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence on materials used in constructions.

The quakes were powerful, but victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming bad construction for multiplying the devastation.

Authorities arrested two people in the province of Gaziantep on Sunday who are suspected of having cut down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.

On 6 February 2023, a catastrophic and destructive 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern and central Turkey, as well as northern and western Syria.

There was widespread damage and tens of thousands of fatalities.

The mainshock is the strongest earthquake in Turkey since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake, of the same magnitude, together with which it is the second strongest in the history of the country after the 1668 North Anatolia earthquake.

The earthquake is the deadliest in Turkey since the 1268 Cilicia earthquake, and in Syria since the 1822 Aleppo earthquake.

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