Massive rescue efforts underway in Türkiye after deadly quakes

By Anadolu Staff

DIYARBAKIR / HATAY / KAHRAMANMARAS / ANKARA, Türkiye (AA) - As deadly earthquakes hit Türkiye, rescue workers remove the rubble of collapsed buildings to save lives believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings.

Early Monday morning, 7.7 magnitude tremor struck the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province, then about nine hours later, a 7.6 magnitude quake centered in Kahramanmaras’s Elbistan district rocked the region, affecting several other provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

The earthquake was also felt in several countries in the region, including Lebanon and Syria.

Orhan Tatar, the risk reduction general manager of Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), said 5,775 buildings collapsed.

He added that more than 24,000 personnel are currently conducting search and rescue operations.

Rescue workers pulled out Muhammet Suleyman Pekyanik from under the rubble of a collapsed building in the southeastern Diyarbakir province after 27 hours. The 30-year-old victim was taken to the hospital by an ambulance.

In Kahramanmaras province, Rumeysa Yalcinkaya, 24, was rescued on Tuesday morning after being trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building for 27 hours. Yalcinkaya, currently in good health, was referred to a hospital.

In the Iskenderun district of Hatay province, brothers Mehmet (23) and Hakan Yilmaz Cagan (10) were saved from the wreckage of a five-storey building.

Also, mother Feride and her son Doruk survived after they spent hours trapped underneath the rubble of a building that collapsed in Iskenderun.

The teams pulled 30-year-old Kubilay from the wreckage of a destroyed building in Osmaniye province around after 26 hours.

In Adiyaman province, a 12-year-old child, Sefa Yaprak, was pulled alive from the debris after 21 hours, and taken to a hospital by the medical teams.

After being trapped for 22 hours under rubbles in Sanliurfa, Meysem Lokman, a Syrian national, was rescued from the ruins of a six-story residential building that collapsed.

Participating in rescue efforts in Gaziantep, Turkish special operations police rescued at least two people, including a child, from under the rubble.

Türkiye will observe seven days of national mourning after the deadly earthquakes.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said that with the quake, Türkiye was shaken by the "biggest disaster" since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake in the last century.

After the earthquakes, condolences poured in from around the world expressing solidarity with Türkiye, with many countries sending rescue teams and aid.