In Turkey, police detained a construction worker who tried to flee the country when an apartment building collapsed

This is when Turkish police detained a real estatedeveloper as he tried to flee the country after his apartment building collapsed during an earthquake. 131 arrest warrants have been issued on charges that the developers ignored regulations and allowed low-quality construction to stimulate a building boom.

The death toll in Turkey has surpassed 28,000 since Monday's earthquake, which left thousands dead under the rubble of buildings, but there are fears the figure could reach 50,000.

Video footage shows the arrest of Mehmet Yasar Çoşkun at Istanbul airport on Friday as he tried to leave the country for Montenegro. Çoşkun is a contractor for the Ronesansans apartment complex that collapsed in Antak. The video also shows the arrest of developer Mehmet Ertan Akay, the developer of the Ayşe Mehmet Polat residential complex that collapsed in the city of Gaziantep, which occurred on Saturday.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said 131 suspects have been identified in the past 24 hours as being responsible for the collapse of buildings in 10 provinces hit by last week's tremors. "Detention warrants have been issued for 113 of them," he told a briefing at the Disaster Management Coordination Center in Ankara. "We will follow this closely until the necessary judicial process is completed, especially with regard to buildings that suffered serious damage and buildings that caused death and injuries."

At least 12 people have already been detained in Turkey and the unrest is hampering rescue operations in some places. One of the detained contractors, Yavuz Karakuş, told reporters, "My conscience is clear. I constructed 44 buildings. Of them, four were demolished. I did everything according to the rules," the DHA news agency reported.

Experts have warned for years that many new buildings in Turkey are unsafe because of widespread corruption and government policies. According to the BBC, these policies allowed so-called amnesties for contractors who evaded building codes to encourage a construction boom, even in an earthquake-prone area.

Thousands of buildings collapsed in the quake, raising questions about whether the impact of the natural disaster was amplified by human error. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged shortcomings in the response, but during one visit to the disaster zone, he seemed to blame fate. "These things always happen. It is part of fate's plan," he said.

Police in Turkey have issued 131 arrest warrants for contractors after thousands of buildings collapsed, accused of ignoring regulations to spur a construction boom.

Tens of thousands of rescuers continue to survey devastated areas despite freezing weather that has compounded the suffering of millions. Six days after the earthquake, the situation is increasingly desperate, with hundreds and thousands of rescuers combing through devastated neighborhoods despite freezing weather that has compounded the suffering of millions. Thousands of people remain stranded after German rescuers and the Austrian army suspended search operations because of clashes between unidentified factions expected to become more violent as food supplies dwindle in the coming days. "There is increasing aggression between factions in Turkey," Austrian Lt. Col. Pierre Kugelweis said. "The probability of saving a life does not match the level of security risk." The search for survivors has resumed with the support of the Turkish army. Millions of people have been left homeless in southern Turkey and northern Syria as temperatures continue to drop below freezing every night. The UN has warned that more than 800,000 people are not getting enough food, while its aid agency on the ground has warned that the final death toll from the quake could double. In Syria, the death toll has topped 3,500, but no new figures have been released since Friday. Thousands of buildings collapsed in the quake, raising questions about whether the impact of the natural disaster was amplified by human error. The death toll has surpassed 28,000 since Monday's quake,