Nearly 8,000 buildings need to be demolished first after earthquakes in Turkey’s 10 affected provinces, the Ministry of Urban Development and the Environment said after assessing more than 132,000 buildings.
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At the moment, six thousand employees of the ministry are engaged in assessing the condition of buildings.
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“So far, we have checked 132,898 buildings in 10 provinces… of which 7,584 have collapsed or need to be urgently demolished, 12,617 buildings are uninhabitable due to damage,” the agency said.
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According to it, more than 31,000 buildings received minor damage, and more than 60,000 did not suffer at all.
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The agency estimates that inspection of all buildings in 10 provinces will be completed within 3-4 days.
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An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck southeastern Turkey on Monday morning. It, according to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, was the strongest since 1939. On the afternoon of the same day, another earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck. According to the latest data, more than 24.6 thousand people died. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in 10 provinces of the country and neighboring states, including Syria.
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Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdagranee said no one will escape punishment for the negligence that led to the collapse of buildings during the devastating earthquake on Monday in the southeast of the country. After the catastrophic aftershocks of 1999, which claimed the lives of more than 18 thousand people, Turkey revised the rules governing the construction of residential buildings. In particular, in 2007, a code was adopted for the construction of houses, taking into account the requirements necessary for protection against earthquakes.
