More than 36,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands injured as death toll from a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria one week ago continues to rise.
31,643 have been confirmed dead in Turkey alone with 4,574 deaths in Syria.
Last week’s earthquake is now one of the five deadliest in the last two decades globally and the strongest in Turkey in the past 80 years.
Turkish authorities have arrested a number of property developers blamed for building collapses as public anger over the quake response grows.
During his visit to Diyarbakir on Monday, Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a presser that in “all earthquake-affected places, the public prosecutor’s office launched judicial investigation. In terms of law, all evidence is evaluated and we are identifying the names of the people responsible for these buildings.”
Bozdag pointed out that “some of the buildings are 30 years old, some are older, some are 20, and some were built in the near future, so our municipalities have this information,” and added that “audits are subject to the evaluation of this information, and our public prosecutors carry out investigations to determine who is involved in these constructions.”
The deadly earthquake that struck in the early hours of Monday was felt in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Egypt.
The quake was followed by dozens of aftershocks, including an unusually powerful 7.5-magnitude quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said..
The killer 7.8 earthquake was centered north of the city of Gaziantep about 90 kilometres (60 miles) from the Syrian border. This is the region which houses millions of refugees from the Syrian civil war.
The quake struck just after 4 a.m. Monday morning local time, 23 kilometers (14.2 miles) east of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers (14.9 miles), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
In the past 25 years, seven quakes with magnitude 7.0 or greater have struck Turkey – but Monday’s quake is the most powerful according to reports.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
