Google's earthquake warning system failed to get to many residents in southern Turkey before February's deadly double earthquake catastrophe that killed tens of thousands, a BBC Newsnight investigation has found.

Google says its Android Earthquake Alert System can provide users with up to a minute's notice on their phones before an earthquake hits, using a loud alarm. It told the BBC that its tremor alert was sent to millions prior to the first, biggest quake, which occurred in the early hours. However, when the BBC visited three cities in the earthquake zone and spoke to hundreds of people, it didn't find anyone who had received a warning.

"If Google makes a promise, or makes an implicit promise, to deliver a service like earthquake early warning, then to me, it raises the stakes," Harold Tobin, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, was quoted as saying.

"They have a responsibility to be able to follow through on something that is directly related to life and limb," he added.

Google's product lead on the system, Micah Berman, asserted that the earthquake warning system worked, telling the British broadcaster: "We are confident that this system fired and sent alerts."

However, the BBC said the company did not provide evidence that these alerts were widely received.

In its report, the broadcaster said it was only able to find a small number of people who got a Google earthquake alert ahead of the second quake, which struck around lunchtime.

That’s despite the fact that around four-fifths of mobile phones in Turkey operate on the Android system.

Google refers to its ability to send quake alerts, which take over a phone’s screen and should override a user’s ‘do not disturb’ mode automatically, as a "core" part of its Android service. It works by capitalising on Android's huge network of phones. Smartphones contain tiny accelerometers that can detect shaking.

The BBC investigation team travelled to Adana, Iskenderun and Osmaniye, cities between 70 kilometres (43 miles) and 150km (93 miles) away from the earthquake epicentre. The people they spoke to were described as adamant they received no Google warning on their phone of the first earthquake. Funda, a woman who lost 25 members of her family in the disaster, was reported as saying she was “certain” she did not get an alert, lamenting: "We literally dumped people into the ground. My brother-in-law and nephew were buried hugging each other."

Tobin at Pacific Northwest Seismic Network was reported as stressing that it was important for Google to be transparent about its earthquake alert service, saying: "If Google's system had worked, perhaps it could have been very beneficial. But the system not working in an important earthquake such as this one begs the question: if this is a beneficial system, why couldn't we benefit from it in this major earthquake, one of the biggest earthquakes of the last 100 years?"