Nine people have been arrested in Albania on suspicion of homicide and abuse of power after the powerful earthquake which toppled dozens of buildings last month and left 51 people dead.

Prosecutors issued 17 warrants in total but eight suspects were still being sought by police.

Builders, engineers and officials were suspected of breaching building regulations that led to the collapse of buildings during the 6.4 magnitude quake on 26 November.

According to preliminary police investigations, irregularities had been the cause of building collapses that killed 23 people in the port city of Durres, which was hard hit by the quake, along with Thumane, north of Tirana. 

Police said "the loss of life in the collapsed buildings came also because their builders, engineers and owners had failed to observe the rules, norms and standards of safe constructions."

Two of the nine people detained on Saturday on murder charges were the owners of two hotels that collapsed, killing four people in Durres, Albania's second-biggest city and main port.

A third was the manager of a police vacation hotel where a high-ranking police officer died.

Among those arrested was also an engineer who worked on one Durres building in which eight members of the same family died.

In the years after 1990 many Albanians moved closer to cities, often building with little supervision by authorities.

Many of the buildings have been legalized in the past three decades by governments eager to get votes, but also seeking to urbanize such areas by putting in sewage systems and roads.

However, some buildings lack proper permits and may not meet safety standards. 

The earthquake was the deadliest in several decades in Albania, which lies near a tectonic fault line.