Turkish justice officials targeted more than 130 people allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction methods as rescuers extricated more survivors, including a pregnant woman and two small children, six days after a pair of earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings.
The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude quakes that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria nine hours apart on February 6 rose to 33,179 on Sunday and was certain to keep increasing as search teams locate more bodies in the rubble.
As despair bred rage at the agonisingly slow rescue efforts, the focus turned to assigning blame for the disaster in an earthquake-prone region that includes an area of Syria already suffering from years of civil war.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Sunday that some 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. While the quakes were powerful, victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming faulty construction for multiplying the devastation.
Turkey’s construction codes meet current earthquake-engineering standards, at least on paper, but they are too rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings toppled over or pancaked down onto the people inside.
Among those facing scrutiny were two more people who were arrested in Gaziantep province on suspicion of having cut down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed in the quakes, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
The justice ministry said three people in all were under arrest pending trial, seven were detained and another seven were barred from leaving Turkey.
Rescuers, including crews from other countries, continued to probe the rubble in hope of finding additional survivors who could yet beat the increasingly long odds. Thermal cameras were used to probe the piles of concrete and metal, while rescuers demanded silence so that they could hear the voices of the trapped.
A pregnant woman was rescued Sunday in the hard-hit Turkish province of Hatay, 157 hours after the first quake, state-broadcaster TRT said.
HaberTurk television broadcast the live rescue of a six-year-old boy removed from the debris of his home in Adiyaman, while Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, posted a video of a young girl who was rescued. “Good news at the 150th hour. Rescued a little while ago by crews. There is always hope!” he tweeted.
Rescue workers pulled out a man in Antakya, hours after hearing voices from beneath the rubble. Workers said the man was one of nine still trapped in the building but said he hadn’t heard any voices for three days.
Those found alive, however, remained the rare exception.
A large makeshift graveyard was under construction in Antakya’s outskirts on Saturday. Backhoes and bulldozers dug pits in the field as trucks and ambulances loaded with black body bags arrived continuously.
The picture of the plight across the border in Syria where the death toll stands at 3553 was less clear.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, visiting the Turkish-Syrian border Sunday, said in a statement that Syrians have been left “looking for international help that hasn’t arrived.”
“We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned,” he said, adding, “My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can.”
The first UN convoy to reach northwest Syria from Turkey was on Thursday, three days after the earthquake.
Before that, it was only a steady stream of bodies of earthquake victims returning to their home country from across the border.
Three Australians feared dead in earthquake
Two Australians have been killed and a third is feared dead in the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria as the toll from the disaster continues to rise.
The remains of an Australian man and an Australian woman have been identified by family members in Turkey, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Saturday.
The man has been identified as Melbourne grandfather Suat Bayram, but the name of the woman has not been made public.
“We lost our beloved father and grandfather,” Mr Bayram’s relative Ebru Hudaverdi posted to social media.
“Our pain is too immense.”
Cabinet minister Chris Bowen extended his condolences, saying the hearts of the government and the Australian public went out to all of those impacted by the earthquake.
“We have made announcements about the level of support we will supply and of course the prime minister, the foreign minister (and) the entire government will keep that situation under monitoring to see if there is anything further we should do,” Mr Bowen said.
Earlier in the week, the body of Sydney man Can Pahali was reported to have been found in rubble but his death is yet to be confirmed by local authorities.
The department is assisting the families of all three people.
About 80 Australians who were in the area affected by the earthquake are now receiving assistance from Australia in Turkey and Lebanon.
Diplomatic missions in Ankara, Istanbul and Beirut continue to attempt to contact Australians thought to be in the region.
Vigils for earthquake victims will be held in Queensland on Sunday night in Maryborough, and in the afternoon at the Gold Coast’s Home of the Arts.
The vigil in Maryborough will include the reading of a message from the Turkish consulate, while the Gold Coast vigil will be hosted by the local Turkish Society.
The Sydney-based Lebanese Muslim Association is appealing for donations to support earthquake victims.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Saturday met members of the Turkish community at Sydney’s Auburn Gallipoli Mosque.
More than 70 Australian emergency service personnel flew out to the earthquake zone to help with rescue and recovery efforts.
Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt shared a photo to social media of the “heroic” emergency crews headed to Turkey.
“This will be confronting work, but we must do what we can do help our friends in Türkiye,” he wrote.
The death toll has surpassed more than 24,000 and is expected to grow as more bodies are found.
The magnitude-7.8 quake struck the southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on Monday and also badly impacted parts of neighbouring Syria.
Rescuers are racing against the clock to find any more survivors, with conditions plummeting as low as -10C.
Source: AAP
