ISTANBUL - Turkish authorities have arrested 48 people for looting or trying to defraud victims after a powerful earthquake hit Turkey, state media reported on Saturday.

The suspects were held in eight different provinces as part of investigations into looting after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the region, news agency Anadolu said.

It later reported that 42 suspects were held for looting in southern Hatay province, while six were arrested over defrauding a victim in Gaziantep by telephone.

Looters have exploited the tragedy in Turkey, smashing windows with hammers, and taking whatever they can find, including expensive mobile phones.

When police detained the suspects in Hatay province, they were carrying money, smartphones, computers, arms, jewellery and bank cards. Shopkeepers are on guard alongside security forces, ready to hunt down anyone, giving rise to suspicion.

The ancient city is quiet and streets that were unaffected by the quake are deserted. Exploiting this eerie silence are looters, going on a spree inside shops that have remained intact.

While some people, desperate for food and baby products, broke into supermarkets after aid did not arrive immediately, looters now rummage through electronics and clothing stores.

Four ATMs were ripped open from the front and emptied.

At a smartphone store, only the signs of the big labels remain. Everything else has been taken, apart from a few bits and pieces of packaging.

Next door, the mannequins in the window have been stripped naked and knocked over while the racks and shelves have been emptied.

Videos have appeared on social media, purportedly showing looters beaten up.

Hatay resident Aylin Kabasakal could not hide her frustration at the situation.

“We’re guarding our homes, our cars. The looters are looting our homes. There’s nothing left to say, unfortunately. We’re destroyed, we’re shaken. What we have gone through is a nightmare,” she said. “The authorities must protect our homes.”

In the province bordering Syria, which hosts more than 400,000 Syrian refugees, suspicion spreads like wildfire about “foreign” looters.

But shopkeeper Nizamettin Bilmez, who sells white goods, admitted Turks “can also do this”.

His vacuum cleaners are less attractive than the phones sold next door, especially since the collapse of the flats above him partially blocked entrance to his shop.

For Mr Bilmez, it is understandable why people broke into supermarkets to find food. “It’s normal for baby wipes, food, drink,” he said, since aid did not arrive for the first couple of days.

The tremor and its aftershocks killed nearly 26,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday announced a three-month state of emergency in the 10 provinces in south-eastern Turkey impacted by the tremor.

But the government is cracking down on looters.

Prosecutors can now detain people for an extra three days from four days previously for looting crimes as part of extended powers under the state of emergency, according to a decree published in the official gazette on Saturday.

Mr Erdogan earlier on Saturday vowed Turkey would crack down on looters.

“We’ve announced a state of emergency,” he said during a visit to the quake-affected province of Diyarbakir.

“This means that, from now on, people involved in looting or kidnapping should know that the state’s firm hand is on their backs,” Mr Erdogan said. AFP