Turkish quake survivor’s misfired message leads to his rescue from rubble

By Ayhan Iscen

KAHRAMANMARAS, Türkiye (AA) - Mustafa Sami Sahin’s misfired text to his cousin helped rescuers save him from the rubble of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras’s Elbistan district, the epicenter of twin quakes that stuck Türkiye earlier this week.

After unsuccessful text message attempts for help by Sahin, 33, as he was trapped under the rubble of a seven-story building for 102 hours, his mobile phone misfired a random text message saying "8" to his cousin, who let rescuers know where he was located.

"It wasn't a deliberate text message. None of the messages I tried to text were sent. A ridiculous message was sent to my cousin in Tekirdag by chance," Sahin told Anadolu.

"Until the text message, no one had any idea whether I was under the wreckage, dead or alive, or somewhere else."

Trapped in a stairwell of the building, Sahin often wondered: “'I guess it's over here.' I often questioned whether it would be better if I die or stay alive."

The numbers have soared to at least 20,213 people killed and 80,052 injured by the two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Monday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Friday.

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

In neighboring Syria, the death toll has climbed above 3,300, with more than 5,200 wounded.