President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would build almost 270,000 new homes in the country’s southeast region, devastated by a massive earthquake.

He said around 118,000 buildings either collapsed, required urgent demolition or were severely damaged by the quake.

Erdogan promised reconstruction work would begin in March in the worst-affected provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaras and Malatya.

“None of these buildings will be more than three or four storeys high”, - he promised, after the quake caused several high-rise blocks of flats to collapse.