Six and a half days after the
earthquake
devastated vast regions of southeastern Turkey, rescue teams still managed to pull people alive from the rubble on Sunday.
Some, even, in a surprising state of integrity.
With the death toll from the devastating 7.8-magnitude quake that struck Turkey and neighboring Syria last Monday already exceeds 33,000, rescue efforts remain in a race against time.
And while the chances of finding people trapped alive begin to dim, there are still miracles.
In the midst of a
devastating scenario
and freezing cold, tens of thousands of local and foreign rescuers work among the ruins in search of signs of life.
And although according to experts time is running out, there are still survivors.
One of the last was that of an eight-year-old boy who was pulled out injured but alive in the town of Nurdagi, in the province of Gaziantep, after spending 155 hours in the rubble.
Shortly before, teams had pulled two sisters, ages 22 and 28, from a collapsed building in Adiyaman, northeast of the epicenter, after being trapped for 152 hours.
Rescue teams are working non-stop in Turkey.
Photo: AP
Another girl, three or four years old, also endured almost 155 hours and was saved this Sunday in Antioquia, one of the cities most affected by the quake, where the old town was practically completely destroyed.
Just an hour earlier, a 35-year-old man in the same city came out alive after five hours of work, as well as an 85-year-old woman, trapped for 152 hours in a 30-centimeter space, but safe and sound.
A seven-month-old baby
named Hamza
was rescued alive more than 140 hours after the quake
in Hatay province (southern Turkey) and 13-year-old teenager Esma Sultan was saved in neighboring Gaziantep, according to state media.
"Is the world still there?" Menekse Tabak, 70, wondered on Saturday as she was pulled from the rubble in the city of Kahramanmaras, according to a video from state broadcaster TRT Haber.
A baby was rescued alive in the Turkish city of Hatay this Sunday.
Photo: REUTERS
In the same city, a 32-year-old teacher was saved, who after 140 hours in the rubble did not hesitate to ask her rescuers for a glass of hot tea, reported the Turkish public broadcaster TRT.
A twelve-year-old girl in the town of Nizip, in Gaziantep province, who had survived 147 hours under ruins, was also rescued alive.
The low temperatures, around zero degrees in a large part of the region, toughen the rescue conditions, but
they may have helped save some lives
, according to what members of the Spanish fire team working in the area explained to EFE.
The rubble stores some heat, so it is less cold under a collapsed building than outside, but since it is not hot, the trapped people do not sweat and dehydrate as quickly as they would in summer.
homeless, hungry and cold
Time is pressing not only for those suspected of being trapped in the destruction, but for hundreds of thousands of people affected, homeless, hungry and cold.
"Soon, the search and rescue people will give way to humanitarian agencies whose job it is to care for the extraordinary number of people affected in the coming months," warned the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, who on Sunday estimated that the total number Death toll in Turkey and Syria from the earthquake may exceed 60,000.
The United Nations has warned that up to 5.3 million people are left homeless in Syria alone and that at least 870,000 are in dire need of food in both countries.
Source: EFE and AFP
BC
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