Rescuers in Turkey carried a family of five to safety on Saturday after they spent five days in their collapsed house following an earthquake that is responsible for the deaths of nearly 25,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
The mother and daughter, Havva and Fatmagul Aslan, were the first to be recovered from the debris in the town of Nurdagi, according to HaberTurk.
Later, the teams reached the father, Hasan Aslan, but he insisted that his other sons be saved first.
When the father was brought out after 129 hours under the rubble, the rescuers cheered: “God is great!”
EARTHQUAKE TURKEY, SYRIA: EARTHQUAKE, CHILD EXTRACTED ALIVE FROM RUBBLE WHILE THE DEATH TOTAL JUMPS ABOVE 22,000
Men walk through the rubble of collapsed buildings in Hatay, southern Turkey on Thursday February 9, 2023. Emergency crews carried out a series of dramatic rescues in Turkey on Friday, pulling several people, some almost unharmed, from the rubble four days later a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 20,000 people. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
Relief efforts have brought shards of hope amid the devastation of Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The quake collapsed thousands of buildings, leaving millions of people homeless. Hours later, another earthquake that was nearly as strong caused more destruction hours later.
Another 80,000 were injured, some of whom are being treated by the Indian Army’s medical aid team at a temporary field hospital in Iskenderun.
Aerial photo showing collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, on Saturday February 11, 2023. Rescuers in Turkey miraculously continued to pull earthquake survivors out of the rubble on Saturday. (IHA via AP)
Sukru Canbulat was in the hospital, his left leg badly injured with deep bruises, contusions and lacerations. After receiving first aid, he was released without adequate treatment for his injuries.
INCREDIBLE DEATH TOTAL FROM TURKEY EARTHQUAKE INCLUDES AT LEAST 3 US CITIZENS: DEPARTMENT OF STATE
“I buried (everyone I lost), then I came here,” he said, counting his dead relatives: “My daughter died, my brother died, my aunt and her daughter died, and the wife of her son” who was eight and a half months pregnant.
Turkish rescuers carry Ergin Guzeloglan, 36, into an ambulance after pulling him out of a collapsed building five days after an earthquake in Hatay, southern Turkey on Saturday February 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
Rescuers switched to thermal cameras to assist in the effort and temperatures remained below freezing across the region.
The United Nations refugee agency estimated that as many as 5.3 million people were left homeless in Syria, with the first aid convoy crossing from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday.
In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and his wife Asma, visit an injured survivor of a devastating earthquake, at a hospital in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria. Saturday 12 February. 11, 2023. ((SANA via AP))
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, according to state-run news agency SANA.
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The death toll in Syria stood at 3,533, while Turkish officials counted 21,043 dead as of Saturday.
The opposition Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, said on Saturday that “it is almost impossible to find people alive”.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
