Eleven days after the earthquake, four new survivors, including a 14-year-old boy, were rescued from the rubble of Antioch, in southern Turkey. An unexpected rescue had also taken place a few hours earlier in Kahramanmaras.
This is a miracle, eleven days after the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Four new survivors, including a 14-year-old boy, have been rescued from the ruins of Antioch in southern Turkey, Turkish authorities and the press reported on Friday. Hours earlier, a 17-year-old woman had also been rescued from the rubble in the town of Kahramanmaras.
A man was discovered in the ruins 278 hours after the quake, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter. The survivor, Hakan Yasinoglu, 45 years old according to the private channel NTV, was found in the ruins of the province of Hatay located near the Syrian border, which notably shelters the completely devastated city of Antioch. The survivor was pulled from a mountain of debris, according to a video shared by (opposition) Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who dispatched rescue teams from the municipality to the stricken areas. Hours earlier, Mustafa, 33, and Mehmet, 26, had been rescued precisely “261 hours” after the earthquake.
And just before, at the “260th hour”, a 14-year-old boy was also extracted from the ruins of his building in the center of Antioch “after intense efforts”, reported the minister. Fahrettin Koca specifies that the teenager, named Osman, underwent “an intervention” in a hospital in the province, without specifying the seriousness, but he appears conscious in the photo.
Low chances of survival
According to the DHA news agency, the two men, Mehmet and Mustafa were in the rubble of the same building, in the center of Antioch, when they were discovered by the rescuers. The minister indicates that they were immediately taken to the hospital.
“Our brother Mustafa remembered the phone number of a relative that he was able to call”, says the minister who also broadcasts a short video. We hear the young man asking: “Is my mother okay?” and display a broad smile when his interlocutor, in tears, replies: “Everyone is fine!”.
The latest official death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 currently exceeds 41,000. The last survivors discovered by the rescuers, while the search is gradually ceasing, were all found in the province of Hatay, around Antioch, near the Syrian border.
Source: Liberation
