WORLD NEWS | Turkey investigates contractors as quake death toll exceeds 33,000

ANTAKYA, Feb. 13 (AP) — Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly linked to buildings that collapsed in the powerful Feb. 6 earthquake, as rescuers found more survivors among the rubble Sunday , including a pregnant woman and two children, in a disaster that has killed more than 33,000 people.

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria nine hours apart rose to 33,185 and is sure to rise as search teams find more bodies.

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As desperation breeds anger amid painfully slow relief, the focus turns to blame.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 131 people were being investigated for alleged responsibility for building buildings that failed to withstand the earthquake. While the quake was strong, many in Turkey blamed the wrong buildings for the extended damage.

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Turkey’s building codes comply with current earthquake engineering standards, at least on paper, but are rarely enforced.

Among those facing scrutiny, two were arrested in Gaziantep province for allegedly chopping down columns to make more room for collapsed buildings, the state-run Anadolu Agency said. Three were arrested pending trial, seven were detained and seven were barred from leaving Turkey, the justice ministry said.

Two contractors responsible for destroying several buildings in Adiyaman were arrested at Istanbul airport on Sunday as they tried to leave the country, the private DHA news agency and other media reported.

Yavuz Karakus, a detained contractor, told the DHA, “I have a clear conscience. I built 44 buildings. Four of them were demolished. Everything I did was done according to the rules.”

Rescuers report finding more survivors in increasingly small numbers. Thermal imaging cameras were used on concrete and metal piles as crews demanded silence so they could hear those trapped.

In the worst-hit Hatay province, a seriously injured 50-year-old woman was carried out by staff in the town of Iskenderun. A similar rescue in the province saved two other women, one of whom was pregnant, broadcasters TRT and HaberTurk reported.

HaberTurk shows a 6-year-old boy rescued from his wrecked house in Adiyaman. A group of women cried with joy as an exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took a deep breath.

Elsewhere in Hatay province, in Antakya, rescuers pulled a man in his 20s or 30s from the rubble, saying he was one of nine people still trapped in the building. But he hadn’t heard from anyone for three days.

German and Turkish workers rescued an 88-year-old man in Kirihan, DPA reported. Italian and Turkish rescuers found a 35-year-old man in Antakya who appeared to be unharmed, private NTV television reported.

A total of 34,717 Turkish search and rescue personnel participated in the rescue. On Sunday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said they were joined by 9,595 people from 74 countries, with more on their way.

In the Syrian capital, Damascus, the head of the World Health Organization warned that the pain would spread, calling the disaster an “on-going tragedy affecting millions of people”.

“Complex crises such as conflict, COVID-19, cholera, economic recession and now earthquakes have taken an unsustainable toll,” Tedros said.

Tedros said WHO experts were awaiting access to northwestern Syria, “where we have been told the impact is more severe.”

During a visit to the Turkey-Syria border on Sunday, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said Syrians were “seeking international assistance that has not yet arrived”.

“We have failed the people of northwestern Syria so far. They rightfully feel abandoned,” he said, adding, “It is my duty and duty to rectify this failure as soon as possible.”

Abdul Hasib Abdul-Rahim returned to his destroyed four-story building on Sunday to try to salvage any valuables in the town of Atareb in northern Aleppo, rebel-held province , but only found blankets, pillows and some clothes. His aunt and her husband died there, but their three children survived.

With no international rescue effort in the war-torn region, the 34-year-old had to retrieve the body herself.

Political disputes have hampered the dispatch of aid convoys from areas of northeastern Syria controlled by U.S.-backed Kurdish groups to areas controlled by the Syrian government and Turkey-backed rebels who have fought the Kurdish group for years.

A U.N. aid convoy sent to northwestern Syria through government-held areas has been delayed due to obstruction by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, an al-Qaeda affiliate group that rules Idlib province, a U.N. spokesman told The Associated Press.

Turkey’s justice ministry has announced the establishment of the Earthquake Crime Investigation Bureau to identify contractors and others responsible for construction work.It gathers evidence; guides experts including architects, geologists and engineers; checks building permits and occupancy permits

The government agency responsible for enforcement admitted in 2019 that more than half of all buildings in Turkey, or about 13 million apartments, are non-compliant due to a government program that allows owners to pay fines instead of bringing buildings into compliance. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)