Rescue teams save more survivors of powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye

By Anadolu Staff

ADIYAMAN/KONYA/ANTALYA/GAZIANTEP, Türkiye (AA) - More people were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings late Sunday as rescue teams from around the world raced against time to save lives in the wake of last Monday's powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye.

Seven-year-old Mustafa was rescued in Hatay province by teams from Konya province after being trapped under the rubble for 163 hours.

Nafize Yilmaz, 62, was pulled from the rubble in Nurdagi in Hatay, Türkiye’s southernmost province. She was also trapped for 163 hours.

Cengiz Polat, the 45-year-old father of Ozkan, Samet and Mustafa Polat, was pulled from the debris in Kahramanmaras province thanks to rescue teams’ efforts to save him after he was trapped for 162 hours. During the rescue efforts, Polat told the rescuers that he hit the stove next to him to make a sound.

A rescue team from the Golcuk Shipyard Command in northwestern Kocaeli province pulled 10-year-old Asima Baltaci alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in Adiyaman. Asima was trapped for 158 hours. His first wish, to have Jelibon fruit gummies, touched the rescuers’ hearts.

At least 29,605 people were killed by the two massive earthquakes, the country's disaster agency said Sunday.

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

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