Rescuers in Turkey pulled a family of five to safety on Saturday after spending five days in their collapsed home following an earthquake that has killed nearly 25,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
The mother and daughter, Havva and Fatmagul Aslan, were the first to be recovered from the rubble in the town of Nurdagi, according to HaberTurk.
The teams later reached the father, Hasan Aslan, but he insisted that his other sons be saved first.
When the father was pulled out after 129 hours under the rubble, rescuers cheered: “God is great!”
TURKEY AND SYRIA EARTHQUAKE: TEENAGE GIRL AND CHILD DRAWN ALIVE FROM RUBBER AS DEATH TOLL EXCEEDS 22,000
Men walk through the rubble of collapsed buildings in Hatay, southern Turkey, Thursday, February 9, 2023. Emergency crews carried out a series of dramatic rescues in Turkey on Friday, pulling several people, some nearly unharmed, from among the debris, four days later. a catastrophic earthquake killed more than 20,000. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
The bailouts brought slivers of hope amid the devastation from Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The tremor collapsed thousands of buildings, leaving millions of people homeless. Hours later, another earthquake that was almost as strong caused more destruction hours later.
Another 80,000 were injured, some of whom are being treated by the Indian Army’s medical aid team at a temporary field hospital in Iskenderun.
Aerial photo showing collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, on Saturday, February 11, 2023. Rescuers in Turkey continued to miraculously pull out earthquake survivors on Saturday. (IHA via AP)
Sukru Canbulat was in the hospital, her left leg was badly injured with deep bruises, bruises and lacerations. After receiving first aid, he was released without proper treatment for his injuries.
STUNNING DEATH TOLL FROM TURKEY EARTHQUAKE INCLUDES AT LEAST 3 US CITIZENS: STATE DEPARTMENT
″I buried (everyone I lost), then I came here,” he said, counting his dead relatives: “My daughter is dead, my brother died, my aunt and her daughter died, and his son’s wife” who she was eight and a half months pregnant.
Turkish rescuers carry Ergin Guzeloglan, 36, to an ambulance after pulling him out of a collapsed building five days after an earthquake in Hatay, southern Turkey, early Saturday, February 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Can Ozer)
Rescuers have switched to thermal cameras to aid the effort, and temperatures have remained below freezing throughout the region.
The United Nations refugee agency estimated that up to 5.3 million people have been left homeless in Syria, with the first aid convoy crossing from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday.
In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and his wife Asma, visit an injured survivor of a devastating earthquake at a hospital in the coastal city of Latakia, Syria, on Saturday February 2, 2019. 11, 2023. ((SANA via AP))
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Saturday, according to the state news agency SANA.
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The total death toll in Syria was 3,533, while the Turkish authorities counted 21,043 deaths as of Saturday.
The opposition Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said on Saturday that “it is almost impossible to find people alive.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
