Turkish residents call for extensive probe into collapsed buildings in quakes

ANKARA, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Amid growing public anger, the Turkish government extends the judicial investigations over contractors of the buildings destroyed in the major earthquakes on Feb. 6.

At least 120 people suspected of being responsible for collapsed buildings were arrested, and the prosecutors are continuing to gather evidence from the samples of the construction materials in the wreckage.

Currently, there is a remarkable increase in damage assessment requests from property owners. The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has received 40,379 requests in the past six days for inspection of their buildings, said Bugra Gokce, deputy secretary-general of the municipality, in a statement on Friday.

A total of 684,000 buildings were examined in the quake-affected provinces and 84,726 of them were found to be collapsed, heavily damaged or in immediate need of demolition, Turkish Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum told reporters on Friday.

The age of the buildings, the low bearing capacity of the floors on which the foundations are placed, and the poor quality of the construction materials were among the parameters effective in the destruction of those buildings, according to a report released on Friday by the academicians of Istanbul Technical University.

In the aftermath of the 1999 earthquake in the northwestern province of Izmit that killed over 17,000 people, the Turkish government pledged to introduce new construction standards, with plans to strengthen the existing buildings.

However, the latest disaster exposed once again the problems of construction safety breaches and lack of inspection, according to another report by the Chamber of Civil Engineers.

In addition to the unqualified materials used in the construction, the report released last week drew attention to poor ground conditions, noting the severely-damaged areas are mostly the places where the settlements rise on fertile agricultural lands.

The buildings of 10 to 15 storeys with a flexible load-bearing structure in these soft soil areas were severely damaged or completely collapsed during the earthquake, the report said.

The death toll from the two major earthquakes that struck southeastern Türkiye has risen to 40,642 by Saturday.

A magnitude 7.7-earthquake struck Türkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude-7.6 one at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT) in Kahramanmaras.