Pregnant woman rescued alive from rubble in Turkey after 115 hours, earthquake death toll rises to 24,000 | Abroad

More than 24,000 lives have now been lost after the natural disasters in Syria and Turkey. Turkey reports 20,665 deaths on Saturday morning, more than 450 more than the number recorded on Friday. In Syria, 3,384 deaths were reported on Friday, according to local media. There is no more recent update yet.

Despite this, miracles still happen every day. In Kahramanmaras, for example, a 46-year-old man was pulled by rescue services from under the rubble of a seven-story building, no less than 112 hours after the quake. In Gaziantep province, a pregnant woman was rescued after 115 hours. In the same province, a 9-year-old girl was also pulled alive from the rubble after 108 hours, although her parents and sister could not be saved. 102 hours after the quake, a family of six was also pulled from under the rubble, state news agency ‘Anadolu’ reports.

According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a total of 141,000 Turkish and foreign rescue workers have now been deployed. Already 97 countries have sent aid to Turkey, including our country.

The Dutch search and rescue team USAR will also be looking for survivors again today in Hatay, Turkey, on day six after the first earthquake. “But the chance that we find someone alive is extremely small,” says team member Jop Heinen. Yesterday, the team managed to pull an 8-year-old boy alive from under the rubble, 106 hours after the earthquakes. Heinen says that minutes later another rescue group had just found a deceased child. “That means that we are thrown back and forth in terms of feelings and experiences that we experience here as a team in providing aid to all those affected people.”

Last night it was again very cold on site, with a temperature in the morning of below freezing, says Heinen. “We are going to make another utmost effort,” he says. The same sound can be heard from the many other rescue workers in the region. You never know.

Turkey’s president admitted on Friday that there were initially “certain setbacks” in the Turkish government’s response to the disaster. Rescue workers in Syria have also sharply criticized the lack of aid in certain areas.

The first earthquake occurred early Monday morning with a magnitude of 7.7. On Monday afternoon, a second quake with a magnitude 7.6 followed. More than 1,000 aftershocks have occurred since then, according to Turkish authorities. The Turkish disaster service AFAD reports that the counter is already at almost 1,900 aftershocks.

AFAD says that 93,000 people have now been evacuated from the disaster area. Some 166,000 rescuers provide emergency assistance to victims. The United Nations estimates that the earthquake left some 5.4 million people homeless.

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