Romanian rescue team tried its 'best' to save people in quake-hit Türkiye: Team leader

A Romanian rescue team arrived in Türkiye on the same day twin quakes struck the country and tried to do its "best" to save people, the leader of the team said on Wednesday.

Bogdan Vladutoiu, the leader of RO-USAR, spoke to Anadolu at the airport in Türkiye's Hatay province before boarding a return flight back to his country with 59 team members after completing their mission in the earthquake zone, where they arrived on Feb. 6, the same day two deadly quakes struck.

Noting that his team was deployed to Hatay at the request of Turkish national civil protection authorities, Bogdan said they managed to save five people who had been trapped under the rubble.

Unfortunately, he said, his team also retrieved some people who were unable to survive.

On the scenes they witnessed in the quake zone, he said: "The scenes here, it's a tragedy and we are very close to the Turkish people. We send our sympathy to the people who have lost their relatives, to the people they know."

"We tried to do our best to save the people, to save those who are in need of us, and we tried to help (the Turkish) population to survive this terrible disaster," he explained.

He noted that they worked in close coordination with the Turkish national authority for civil protection and that they are happy with their work as they managed to save many people in need.