Rescue teams save more survivors of powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye
More people were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings late Sunday as rescue teams from around the world raced against time to save lives in the wake of last Monday's powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye.
- Turkey
- Published Date: 10:42 | 13 February 2023
- Modified Date: 10:49 | 13 February 2023
Sibel Kaya was rescued from the rubble of a five-story building in İslahiye district of Gaziantep province. The 40-year-old woman was saved 170 hours after the quake.
Another miracle rescue came when teams pulled Erengül Önder, 60, from the rubble after 166 hours in Besni district of Adıyaman province.
Seven-year-old Mustafa was rescued in Hatay province by teams from Konya province after being trapped under the rubble for 163 hours.
Nafize Yılmaz, 62, was pulled from the rubble in Nurdağı in Hatay, Türkiye's southernmost province. She was also trapped for 163 hours.
Cengiz Polat, the 45-year-old father of Özkan, Samet and Mustafa Polat, was pulled from the debris in Kahramanmaraş province thanks to rescue teams' efforts to save him after he was trapped for 162 hours. During the rescue efforts, Polat told the rescuers that he hit the stove next to him to make a sound.
A rescue team from the Gölcük Shipyard Command in northwestern Kocaeli province pulled 10-year-old Asima Baltacı alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Adıyaman. Asima was trapped for 158 hours. His first wish, to eat Jelibon fruit gummies, touched the rescuers' hearts.
At least 29,605 people were killed by the two massive earthquakes, the country's disaster agency said Sunday.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in Kahramanmaraş province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, which also included Hatay, Gaziantep, Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa.
Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.