A 17-year-old woman and a woman in her 20s were rescued from the rubble in Turkey Thursday, 11 days after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit southern Turkey on February 6.
Alina Olmes, whose name means “the one who does not die” in Turkish, is one of the few survivors still to be found under the rubble despite the cold and the violence of the earthquake that killed more than 36,000 people in Turkey.
The girl was buried under the rubble of the building in which she lived in Kahramanmaraş, southern Turkey, for 248 hours, before she was rescued.
An aid worker told AFP that she was conscious during her rescue and was able to close and open her eyes as instructed by the medical teams.
One by one, her uncle kissed the volunteers who rescued her. “We are very happy. Seeing the family’s joy is unparalleled,” said Ismail, an aid worker.
Volunteers, mostly miners from different cities in the country, are still trying to find survivors under the rubble.
“All miners will tell you that we came here hoping to hear the voice of a survivor,” said Ali Akdogan, one of the miners.
“Even if we hear a cat’s voice, we try to save it,” he added.