Three charged over Turkey school collapse

TURKEY: Three people were charged Sunday over the collapse of a boarding school in central Turkey that claimed 18 lives, Anatolia news agency reported.

The school’s headmaster, his deputy and the chairman of a religious foundation running the school were charged with “causing deaths by negligence” and remanded in custody by a court in Konya province, Anatolia said.

Prosecutors are now to draw up an indictement detailing the charges before a trial can begin.

The three-storey building outside Taskent town collapsed early Friday after a gas leak from kitchen pipes caused a powerful explosion, killing 17 girls attending Koran classes there and a teacher. Twenty-seven people were injured.

The authorities came under fire over the disaster amid reports that the building, which was shoddily built and lacked gas safety appliances, was not properly inspected and that the association running the place was using it for unauthorised Koran classes for girls during the summer.

Newspapers pointed an accusing finger also at the ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, which in 2005 sponsored a law that allowed for owners of unlicensed schools to escape with a fine rather than a prison term.

Ankara, Sunday, AFP