Twelve people from the construction sector were arrested in Turkey after thousands of buildings collapsed in the south of the country following Monday’s earthquake, local media reported on Saturday, citing AFP and Agerpres.

The arrested are a businessman from Gaziantep province and 11 people from Sanliurfa province, the Turkish press agency DHA reports.

The violent collapse of some buildings, which showed their poor construction and practically left no chance for residents, caused outrage in the country, where almost 22,000 people died and more than 80,000 were injured.

More arrests are expected after the prosecutor of Diyarbakır, one of the ten provinces hit by the earthquake, announced on Saturday that he had issued 29 arrest warrants, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

According to this source, one of the detainees is an entrepreneur who built buildings in Gaziantep and was detained in Istanbul.

Prosecutors have launched several investigations in affected provinces, such as Kahramanmaras, where the Pazardzhik district was the epicenter of the earthquake.

Turkey’s Justice Ministry has ordered prosecutors in ten provinces to open “earthquake-related crime investigation offices.”

On Friday, police arrested a businessman from Hatay province at Istanbul airport, whose luxurious Renaissance residence completely collapsed on its occupants.

More than 25 thousand dead as a result of earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

More than 25,000 people have died in earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria on Monday, according to the latest official figures released on Saturday, AFP reports.

According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is visiting the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, 21,848 dead bodies have been found in Turkey so far.

At the same time, the Syrian authorities reported 3,553 dead in Syria.​​