The owner of an apartment complex destroyed by the earthquake in Türkiye has been detained at an Istanbul airport while trying to leave the country.
He is among 12 people detained over collapsed buildings.
The arrests came as rescuers pulled more people from the rubble early yesterday, five days after the country’s most devastating earthquake since 1939, but hopes were fading that many more survivors would be found.
The death toll kept growing – exceeding 25,250 across southern Türkiye and northwest Syria.
Mehmet Yasar Coskun, owner of Renaissance Residence in the southeastern Hatay province, was stopped at Sabiha Gokcen airport attempting to travel to Montenegro, the official Turkish Anadolu agency reported.
He was travelling to Montenegro with a small amount of money, which was seized by the airport police, the report stated. He has yet to be officially charged.
The 12-storey Renaissance complex consisted of 250 apartments, and was located in Hatay’s Antakya district. It had been advertised as a luxury residence project that complied with building regulations.
It was completely toppled after a 7.8-magnitude quake struck the southeastern city of Gaziantep on Monday morning, followed by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Kahramanmaras province shortly after.
On Thursday, Türkiye’s justice minister announced that a judicial investigation had been initiated over collapsed buildings during the quake. The probe will seek to hold to account those who built the buildings or bore any responsibility for their collapse in the 10 worst-affected provinces.
Those who have negligence, faults and those responsible for the destructions will be held accountable, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said.