Miracle kin in Turkey Ma & 2 kids found
A mother and her two children were pulled alive from the wreckage of a collapsed building in Turkey Wednesday — 10 days after a devastating earthquake struck the region — after rescuers zeroed in on a sound coming from piles of rubble.
A woman who identified herself as Ela was saved in Hatay province along with her children, Meysam and Ali Ba det, the state news service Andalou Agency reported.
Ela, her son and daughter had spent 228 hours trapped beneath piles of debris.
“A sound was heard during [search and rescue] works,” said Mehmet Eryilmaz, a miner and member of the crew that rescued the family. “We focused our work on that sound. The mother was happy to see us. I held her hand at first. We talked, chatted, I tried to calm her down.”
Eryilmaz revealed the first thing Ela asked for was water. She also asked what day it was.
Miraculous tales of survival continued trickling out of Turkey and Syria Wednesday, even as hopes to find survivors dwindled.
In Turkey’s southern city of Kahramanmaras, rescuers pulled from the rubble two women, ages 74 and 46.
Also Wednesday, a 45year-old woman identified as Melike mamo lu was found alive after 222 hours trapped beneath a destroyed apartment building.
Rescuer Hasan Kilinc told reporters: “We were there to identify bodies . . . it was then that I heard a groaning cry for help coming from the rubble. At first I was scared, but then I was overjoyed. There she was, a woman who waited for a long time.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged problems in the initial response to the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck early Feb. 6 but has said the situation was now under control.
“We are facing one of the greatest natural disasters not only in our country but also in the history of humanity,” Erdogan said in a televised speech in Ankara.
UN authorities have said the rescue phase is coming to an end, with the focus shifting to shelter, food and schooling for some 26 million people in Turkey and Syria affected by the disaster.