Quake victim gives birth to baby girl in southwestern Türkiye

By Ali Balli

MUGLA, Türkiye (AA) – A quake victim, who was brought to the Bodrum district of Türkiye’s southwestern Mugla province, gave birth to a baby girl on Tuesday.

Isil Ozdemir, 22, was placed in a hotel under the coordination of the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD. Ozdemir, who was 39-week pregnant, gave birth to her baby named "Defne" in Bodrum State Hospital.

Ozdemir and her relatives came to Bodrum from quake-hit Hatay province. Ozdemir’s husband was still in the Antakta district of Hatay.

“I am both scared and very happy. I held my baby in my arms in good health, but my husband stayed in Hatay," the mother said.

She said they experienced great panic during the earthquakes and were terrified for their babies.

"It was raining during the earthquakes. We managed to get out of the building and stayed in a car for 3-4 days,” she added.

She noted that they saw other buildings collapse in front of their eyes and people were under the rubble.

At least 31,974 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said on Tuesday.

Magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar