Teams pull out survivors from rubble after 3 days

HATAY

Many people trapped under the rubble after two major earthquakes that hit the country’s south were saved by rescue teams and volunteers after three days of below-average bitterly cold temperatures and harsh frost.

Searching for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by a catastrophic earthquake, stretched rescue teams are continuing to pull out living bodies though more than three days have passed.

Feyzullah Polat, 35, and his 9-year-old daughter Zeynep, who were found by the teams 81 hours after being trapped under the rubble of an apartment in Kahramanmaraş, were pulled out alive.

Two more children, Mehmet Naim and Melih, were rescued from the rubble 78 hours after the tremor in Pazarcık district. Their mother was also pulled out of the rubble alive after them.

A father and his two sons, who were trapped under a building in Pazarcık district, were rescued after around 76 hours. The injured were transferred to the hospital.

The Bağış family was also pulled out with injuries after waiting for 73 hours under a building in the city. The 55-year-old Ali Bağış, 40-year-old Zelal Bağış and their 5-year-old daughter Mir Berzan were treated at the hospital.

Meanwhile, Nazime Şahinoğlu was rescued alive after 80 hours after the quake from the wreckage of a six-storey apartment building in Malatya.

A gendarmerie search and rescue team (JAK) from the northeastern province of Erzurum, which participated in search and rescue efforts in Hatay, pulled a little girl from the rubble 76 hours after the quake.

In Adıymana, teams also saved two young members of the Koşun family stuck in the rubble.