Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ISTANBUL: More people were rescued late Sunday from the rubble of collapsed buildings as rescue teams from around the world raced against time to save lives in the aftermath of last Monday’s powerful earthquakes in southern Turkey.
Sibel Kaya was rescued from a five-story building’s rubble in Gaziantep’s Islahiye district. The woman, 40, was rescued 170 hours after the earthquake. Another miraculous rescue occurred when teams pulled Erengul Onder, 60, from the rubble in Adiyaman province’s Besni district after 166 hours.
Mustafa, 7, was rescued in Hatay province by Konya province teams after being trapped under the rubble for 163 hours. Nafize Yilmaz, 62, was rescued from the rubble in Nurdagi, Hatay, Turkey’s most southern province. She was also held captive for 163 hours. Cengiz Polat, 45, the father of Ozkan, Samet, and Mustafa Polat, was rescued from the debris in Kahramanmaras province by rescue teams after being trapped for 162 hours. Polat told the rescue team that he hit the stove next to him to make a sound during the rescue efforts.
Asima’s first wish melt the hearts of rescue teams
Asima Baltaci, 10, was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Adiyaman by a rescue team from the Golcuk Shipyard Command in northwestern Kocaeli province. Asima had been trapped for 158 hours. His first wish of eating Jelibon fruit gummies warmed the rescuers’ hearts.
According to the country’s disaster agency, the two massive earthquakes killed at least 29,605 people. More than 13 million people in Turkey were affected by the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, which were centered in Kahramanmaras province and struck Hatay, Gaziantep, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
Several countries in the region felt the strong tremors that struck Turkey in less than 10 hours, including Syria and Lebanon.
