More than 600 people are under investigation in Turkey in connection with buildings that collapsed in earthquakes earlier this month. According to the Minister of Justice, among the 184 people detained pending trial are contractors and building owners.
The death toll from the earthquakes, which struck 11 southeastern provinces of Turkey on February 6 with magnitudes 7.7 and 7.6, and to which another 6.4 quake was added last Monday in Antioch, has risen to 44,218 people, according to the authorities.
Altogether, almost two million people have had to leave their homes, demolished or damaged by the tremors, and are currently surviving in tents, prefabricated shelters, hotels, shelters and various public institutions, says a statement from AFAD, the service Turkish emergency
The figure includes both those who remain in the areas affected by the earthquakes and those who have sought refuge in other regions of the country, AFAD specifies.
In total, 528,000 people have been evacuated from the eleven provinces that appear as affected regions, adds the agency’s statement, while in these areas 335,000 tents have been installed and 130 provisional nuclei of prefabricated booths are being established.
So far, the Ministry of Urban Planning has inspected 1.3 million buildings, totaling more than half a million homes or offices, noting that 173,000 properties are either demolished or so seriously damaged that they must be demolished immediately.
Construction of 200,000 new homes will begin in March and April, the ministry has promised.
Source: Euronews Español
