Volunteer rescue workers in southernmost Turkish province ‘spare no effort’ to find quake survivors

By Sibel Morrow

HATAY, Türkiye (AA) - Volunteers across Türkiye continued to pour into Iskenderun in southern Türkiye on Thursday to assist in search and rescue efforts and distribute aid to earthquake survivors who were left homeless.

Iskenderun is only one of several heavily damaged areas of southernmost Hatay province which was rocked by two earthquakes Monday, leaving more than 14,350 people dead.

University student Ahmet Gokberk Ersan, 24, from nearby Mersin province, raced to Iskenderun as soon as the first earthquake struck.

"I have several friends who were living here," Ersan told Anadolu as he watched anxiously while rescue teams sifted through the rubble of a collapsed building.

"But regardless of whether I knew them or not, my only focus right now is to help save lives," he said.

"Volunteer rescue workers are sparing no effort," he added. "But they’re working with limited resources."

Another volunteer who preferred not to give his name, said the chances of finding survivors were becoming “increasingly slim.”

"But we’re not ready to give up hope yet," he said.

On Thursday, 2-year-old Mert Tatar was rescued in Hatay province, 79 hours after the 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes struck.

Hazal, 5, and her mother Betul Guner were rescued from the debris of a destroyed apartment building in the Antakya district of the city after 72 hours. And 3-year-old Eya Haddap was rescued after 70 hours.

Teams saved a father and his daughter from the same site.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited quake-hit areas, including Hatay, on Wednesday, one day after Türkiye announced a three-month state of emergency to speed up search and rescue operations.

Türkiye also declared seven days of national mourning after the devastating quakes, which left 16,170 people dead and 64,194 injured.

"This earthquake is the third-largest to occur since the 1668 Great Anatolia earthquake and the 1939 Erzincan earthquake in the last 2,000 years on the Anatolian geography," Vice President Fuat Oktay said Thursday.

Harold Tobin, director of US-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, said the two quakes, which were centered in Türkiye’s Kahramanmaras province, were among the most destructive seen anywhere in the past century.