The death toll from the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria rose to more than 33,000 on Sunday, with the United Nations warning that the final toll could double.
Officials and doctors said 29,605 people had died in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria, bringing the confirmed total to 33,179, Agence France-Presse reports.
Turkey's Environment Minister Murat Kurum said that based on an initial assessment of more than 170,000 buildings, 24,921 across the region had collapsed or been severely damaged by the earthquake.
Turkish authorities have issued more than 100 arrest warrants for the collapsed buildings. State media reported that at least 12 people were in custody, including contractors, architects and engineers linked to some of the tens of thousands of buildings destroyed or severely damaged after Monday's 7.8-magnitude and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes.
Opposition leaders have long accused Erdogan's government of failing to enforce building regulations after the 1999 Izmir earthquake to ensure apartment and office blocks were more earthquake-resistant.
Some critics are suggesting the arrests are an attempt to deflect blame for the disaster, as experts have repeatedly warned that many new buildings in Turkey were unsafe. The BBC reports that government policies allowed contractors who did not comply with building regulations, including in earthquake-prone areas.
The president has accused his critics of lying and in comments so far appeared to blame fate for the disaster, saying such disasters "have always happened. He has vowed to start rebuilding within weeks.
