Turkish authorities have expanded a criminal probe into individuals responsible for buildings levelled by last month’s deadly earthquakes, with 564 suspects identified, Agence France-Presse reported.

The earthquake on 6^th February and its aftershocks have killed more than 43,000 people in Turkey and left millions without homes.

in an interview on the state-run TRT Haber channel last Wednesday, interior minister Suleyman Soylu said: “160 of them have been detained, 18 are in police custody and 175 have been released on bail."

“We have banned all of those under investigation from travelling. Nothing is more precious than human life. We are being thorough."

Tens of thousands of buildings collapsed without warning following the violent tremor as many people slept.

Turkish media has been vocal in criticising building firms for using shoddy materials and failing to comply with construction codes.

In the face of growing anger, several developers and contractors were arrested in the first days following the earthquake.

Environment minister Murat Kurum announced on Thursday that “1,250,000 buildings were examined in 11 provinces [and] 164,321 buildings made up of 520,000 independent units have already been destroyed, severely damaged or urgently need to be demoilished.

“We are making plans taking into account the cultural landscape, our children’s future and guaranteeing our towns are on safe ground," Kurum added. “We will build the new housing with this in mind."

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced plans to rebuild 270,000 homes in the devastated provinces within one year. Erdoğan has himself attracted fierce criticism after footage emerged last week of speeches he made during local election campaigning in 2019.

Videos on social media show the president telling audiences that he had “removed building standards-related headaches for hundreds of thousands of citizens” with his amnesty policy.