Teams save more quake survivors in miraculous rescues as efforts enter day 7 in Türkiye

By Anadolu staff

HATAY / GAZIANTEP, Türkiye (AA) – On the day seven of the rescue efforts, teams striving hard witnessed more miraculous rescues on Sunday in the debris of powerful earthquakes hitting southern Türkiye earlier this week.

Mustafa Sarigul, a 35-year-old man, was rescued from the rubble of a six-story building in Hatay’s Antakya district, an area severely affected due to the twin earthquakes which struck Türkiye on Monday.

Turkish and Romanian rescue teams were screened live on television as they worked five hours to pull Sarigul out from the debris where he was trapped for 146 hours.

A young girl, Eylul Kilic, in Gaziantep’s Nizip district was also rescued after she survived for 146 hours in debris of collapsed buildings. She was staying at her aunt’s home when the quakes shook the region.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the 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.

In Syria, the regime and rescue officials reported at least 3,553 people were killed and more than 5,270 wounded.