Union Agencies (Ankara)
A father and his daughter, an infant, and a 10-year-old girl were among a group of survivors pulled by rescuers from under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Turkey’s southern Hatay province yesterday.
As rescue efforts enter their sixth day, crews are running out of time to reach the victims trapped under the rubble, but emergency crews are still finding survivors.
A video clip released by the Istanbul Municipality showed rescuers in Hatay dragging a 10-year-old girl through a hole in the floor of a damaged building before carrying her on a stretcher.
The Istanbul municipality said: The girl, named Cody, spent 147 hours under the rubble.
Also in Hatay, rescuers pulled a baby from under the rubble of a collapsed building. A video clip published by the Turkish Ministry of Health showed the child lying on a stretcher in silence, with traces of bruises on his body and covered in dust, while rescuers were taking him to safety.
In central Hatay, a father and his five-year-old daughter, Amira, were pulled from the rubble of a destroyed building. A video clip published by the Kocaeli Municipality yesterday showed the rescuers talking to Amira and her father while they were under the rubble.
One of the rescuers said, “Hi, pretty girl. We’re here to get you out.”
In the city of Kahramanmaraş, about 180 kilometers north of Hatay, 27-year-old Muhammad Habib recited verses from the Qur’an to the rescuers during a ten-hour operation to retrieve him.
A video clip posted on social media showed Habib hitting his fist in the air and shouting, “God is great,” amidst the cheers of rescuers when he was finally lifted by machines.
A team of Chinese rescue workers and Turkish firefighters rescued a 54-year-old Syrian man from the rubble of a building near a central park in the city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province.
Also, a 55-year-old woman was rescued from a collapsed building yesterday evening, also in Antioch. CNN Turk showed rescue workers carrying her on a stretcher to an ambulance as she waved her hand.
A live broadcast of the network showed the rescue of a woman named Saadet Coskin from a building in the town of Nordagi in Gaziantep, 159 hours after the first earthquake. Her health condition is not yet clear.