Turkish officials have detained 130 people allegedly involved in illegal construction methods as rescuers on Sunday looked to extricate more survivors of last week’s devastating earthquakes now estimated to have claimed more than 33,000 lives.
AP reports the death toll from the 7.8 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude quakes that hit south-eastern Turkey and northern Syria nine hours apart on Feb. 6 rose to 33,179 on Sunday.
Officials and medics said the total is made up of 29,605 people who died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake.
Tens of thousands of people have also been left homeless.
A tent camp for earthquake victims has been set up in the stadium of the provincial capital with tents from the Turkish disaster management authority AFAD. Almost a week after the earthquake disaster in the Turkish-Syrian border area, the number of dead has risen to more than 30,000. (Boris Roessler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A further 80,000 people are thought to be injured and seeking medical treatment.
Government officials and rescue agencies agree the death toll and injured numbers are certain to keep increasing as search teams work through the vast expanses of rubble.
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.
Watch below as buildings collapse during the earthquake and the tremors that marked the aftermath
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said those under investigation were being challenged for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes, according to the AP report.
Those being questioned are being detained until formal charges are laid.
While the quakes were powerful, victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming faulty construction for multiplying the devastation saying the combination of poor building practices and lax inspection standards combined to deliver the catastrophic death toll.
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.
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The detentions could help direct public anger toward builders, developers and contractors, deflecting attention away from local and state officials who allowed the apparently sub-standard constructions to go ahead despite concerns.
Makeshift graveyards meanwhile are popping up across the outskirts of the disaster zone, reports indicated.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday again warned people against looting in the aftermath of the devastation.
AP, AFP contributed to this story