'We need justice': Anger grows among quake victim families in Turkey as surival hopes fade

Peter Smith reports from Kahramanmaras where questions are continuing to grow as to whether earthquake engineering codes were properly adhered to in building developments

In the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras the focus from rescue workers has now switched from looking for survivors to the recovery of bodies for funerals.

Here, the air is thick with hazardous dust and the smell of smoke, but families still sit in the cold waiting for news of relatives still missing after last week's 7.8 magnitude earthquake.

But while the search for the missing is ongoing, a search for answers in Turkey has just begun.

One man told ITV News: "I have six family members still in there. How could so many buildings just fall?

"We want to know if the construction companies broke any rules. They need to be arrested, we need justice."

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Since the tremor struck, 14 buillders have been arrested and more than 100 warrants issued for those suspected of cutting engineering regulations.

And as pressure grows on Turkey's governement for answers, lawyers have begun the process of gathering evidence for the country's top prosecutors.

Egemen Gurcun said the ruined remains of cities across southern and central Turkey should now be classed as "crime scenes".

After Turkey’s 1999 earthquake, ITV News uncovered evidence of shoddy building practices. Public outcry was so severe it became a major issue in elections, which were held three years later.

Now, it appears incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be facing up to his own political crisis.

When he came to power in 2014 he promised to make buildings safer, introducing strict building codes.

But five years ago, in response to a flagging economy, the Turkish government introduced an amnesty on these rules. New developments no longer had to abide by such codes, even in known earthquake zones.

Amid the wreckage in Kahramanmaras a lone building has barely a crack on the walls. It belongs to the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects.

One of its members, Sibel Bas, said they have been warning for years against dangerous buildings.

"This is a manmade disaster and local authorities, central authorities, ministries, the decision making authorities... if they have taken a rule in the wrong techniques engineers [and] architects we are all responsible," she said.

February's deadly earthquake is one which has killed tens of thousands and ruined the lives of many more.

It is a natural disaster, an act of god made so much worse by mistakes of man.