The Turkish authorities have arrested 33 construction contractors due to construction defects and irregularities in Diyarbakir;

The largest city in southeastern Turkey affected by the earthquake.

And Anatolia News Agency reported that the Diyarbakir Public Prosecutor's Office had begun an investigation regarding identifying defects and irregularities related to construction and buildings destroyed by the earthquake in the city, such as removing concrete columns to increase the area of ​​buildings.

The agency added that investigations are still underway with the detainees, including the contractors responsible for those buildings.

previous arrests

Yesterday, Saturday, Turkish media reported that the authorities had arrested 12 contractors following the collapse of thousands of buildings, 11 of them in Sanliurfa state, and a contractor in Gaziantep state.

Yesterday, Friday, the police arrested a contractor at Istanbul Airport who is responsible for building luxury residential complexes consisting of 12 floors that collapsed in Hatay state as a result of the earthquake last Monday.

The Turkish Ministry of Justice ordered public prosecutors in the ten states to open "offices to investigate crimes related to the earthquake" and to prosecute those responsible for constructing buildings that violated specifications, which caused their collapse.

judicial investigations

Public prosecutors have launched investigations into the collapse of buildings and construction violations in the affected areas in Kahramanmaraş, where the epicenter of the earthquake was in the Pazardzhik region.

Since the earthquake, the Turkish media has denounced some contractors who used poor materials or did not respect safety standards.

And the Turkish Minister of Environment and Urban Development, Murad Qorum, said last Friday that the number of collapsed or severely damaged buildings in all affected buildings reached 11,141.

Turkish Vice President Fuad Oktay said - late on Saturday evening - that the number of earthquake victims had risen to 24,617 dead and more than 80,000 wounded.