Portuguese rescue team saves dog after 200 hours under rubble in southern Türkiye

By Anna Cecilia Canatan

ANKARA (AA) - A Portuguese rescue team in Türkiye’s Hatay province rescued on Tuesday a dog named Tarcin that had been under the rubble for about 200 hours after the devastating Feb. 6 earthquakes, according to local media reports.

More than a week after the earthquakes that affected southeastern Türkiye, the Portuguese team rescued a golden retriever from a collapsed building in Antakya district, Portuguese National News Agency (Lusa) reported.

The team heard a bark. At first, they could not identify where the sound was coming from, but they eventually understood the bark was coming from under the rubble.

By poking a hole in the wall, the team was able to open a passage so that Tarcin could escape from the debris.

Visibly thin, Tarcin also had injuries on his snout and paws, a sign that he "tried to dig through the wall and find a way out," the coordinator of the Portuguese National Republican Guard team Andre Rosa told Lusa.

An hour after being rescued, Tarcin was rejoined by its owner Taner, who thanked the team for the rescue.

Filipe Melo, one of the members of the Portuguese resuce team on the ground, said that these were the moments that encouraged them to continue their efforts.

The Portuguese rescue team arrived in Türkiye last Thursday with 13 tons of aid material and six rescue dogs.

Over 35,400 people were killed and more than 105,000 others injured in the deadly quakes that jolted southern Türkiye, according to the latest official figures.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adiyaman, Gaziantep and Hatay.

In neighboring Syria, at least 3,688 people were killed and over 14,749 injured.