At 4:17 a.m. local time on Monday, the first in a series of earthquakes and aftershocks hit cities in Turkey and Syria, causing widespread destruction and causing thousands of deaths. people killed.
More than 100 hours later, rescuers continued to work around the clock in the hope of pulling more survivors out of the rubble.
In Kahramanmaras, search and rescue teams were trudging along mountain ruins, as key areas of the city center – including residential buildings, offices, banks and markets – turned into rubble. destroyed by earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 on the Richter scale.
Dozens of local organizations and a steady stream of volunteers are supporting search, rescue and relief operations. Given the size of the mission, international teams have arrived to help search for survivors.
As the death toll reached more than 21,500 on Friday – amid freezing temperatures and crumbling mountains – hopes of finding more people alive were dwindling.
Surrounded by destruction, however, stories of resilience and survival emerged; Life was miraculously saved even after days of being trapped under the rubble.
Here are the stories of some of the survivors:
110 hours: “Another body was pulled from the wreckage and he is still alive… 110 hours later,” Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said, reporting from a rescue site in Kahramanmaras on Friday. “The ambulance took him to the hospital. And there’s another one [man] Now, they are digging for him. Our reporter said rescuers still don’t know if the second man is still alive, “but at this point the hope is very high that the second person – maybe minutes later – could be.” was pulled from the wreckage, and he was still alive. , 110 hours later”. Hours earlier, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of the same rescue site alive.
104 hours: Zeynep Kahraman, 40, was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in the town of Kirikhan on Friday, 104 hours after she was buried alive in the earthquake. German paramedics lifted her onto a stretcher and put her in an ambulance. “I now believe in miracles,” said Steven Bayer, head of the international search and rescue team at the scene. “You can see people crying and hugging each other. It is a relief that this woman in such conditions has turned out to be so healthy. It was an absolute miracle.”
In Turkey’s southern province of Adiyaman, Eyup Ak, 60, was pulled alive from the rubble of a building that collapsed on Friday, also 104 hours after being trapped in the quake. Ak is on a stretcher for medical attention after being rescued.
103 hours: Murat Vural, 66, was rescued in Gaziantep province, Islahiye district, 103 hours after the first earthquake hit. Vural was removed from the rubble after 10 hours of work by members of the Turkish National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE) and the police.
In Kahramanmaras, a 15-year-old Syrian girl was rescued by Azerbaijani rescue teams after 103 hours.
In Hatay, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble, 103 hours after the first quake.
102 hours: In the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaras province, UMKE and police teams saved the life of Mustafa Sahin Sami, 33, 102 hours after the first earthquake. Teams worked for 12 hours to rescue him from the rubble of a seven-story building.
101 hours: Rescue workers in Iskenderun, Turkey said six people were pulled from a collapsed building Friday morning after spending 101 hours underneath the rubble. According to Murat Baygul, a search and rescue worker, six people, all relatives, survived by huddled together in a small bag left inside the collapsed structure.
In Hatay Province, a team of miners from Zonguldak Province rescued a mother, Ihlas Ayaz, and her son, 101 hours after the first earthquake hit.
In Kahramanmaras province, two sisters aged 15 and 13 were pulled from the rubble on Friday. 15-year-old girl stuck for 99 hours, her sister for 101 hours; both receive medical care.
100 hours: Naim Bayasli, 32, was rescued by the Uzbek rescue team from the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay province after he was trapped for 100 hours.
96 hours: A family, including a one-and-a-half-year-old girl, was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building on Friday. Family members include the baby’s mother, father, brother and uncle. They were rescued in Hatay’s Antakya district after being trapped for 96 hours.
Rescue teams in Kahramanmaras pulled a young Syrian woman, Fatma Karus, 26, alive from the rubble Friday, 96 hours after the earthquake.
94 hours: Before dawn on Friday, rescuers in Gaziantep pulled a 17-year-old man out of the basement, where he had been trapped for 94 hours. “Thank God you came,” he said, embracing his mother and the others who leaned over to kiss and hug him as he was loaded into the ambulance. A crowd of friends and relatives chanted his name, clapped and shed tears of joy as he was brought out. The teenager said he was forced to drink his own urine to quench his thirst. “I was able to survive that way. One lifeguard, identified only as Yasemin, told him: “I have a son just like you… I swear to you, I haven’t slept in four days. I swear I don’t sleep; I tried to get you out.
90 hours: A 10-day-old baby was found alive with his mother in Hatay after 90 hours trapped. A 5-year-old girl and her father were also pulled from the rubble at the 90th hour.
89 hours: In Kahramanmaras, a 7-year-old boy and his 32-year-old father Ozan Ramazan Guclu were found alive 89 hours later.
88 hours: In Adıyaman, rescue teams rescued two siblings aged 7 and 14 from the rubble of a six-story building after 88 hours.
