It is just a miracle! A 13-year-old teenager was pulled out alive from under the quake-ravaged wreckage of a collapsed building by rescuers in Turkey’s southern Hatay province on Monday 182 hours after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck.
During the desperate search for anyone still alive, a rescuer found the teenager alive under the debris during a search operation, reported Reuters. The rescuer held the hand of the tenager placed him on a stretcher with his body covered for warmth and he was moved into an ambulance.
Scores of local and foreign teams with the help of sniffer dogs and thermal cameras are desperately searching through pulverized apartment blocks for signs of life.
While the broadcasts of near-miraculous rescues have rekindled the hopes, tens of thousands of dead have been found during the same period.
Experts say given temperatures that have fallen to minus 6 degrees Celsius and the total collapse of so many buildings, the window for such rescues is nearly shut, reported AP.
With hopes of finding many more survivors in the rubble fast fading, the total death toll in Turkey and Syria rose above 37,000 and appeared set to keep increasing.
Residents from several Turkish cities have cited security concerns, as widespread accounts of businesses and collapsed homes being robbed. In order to prevent merchandise from being stolen by looters, few business owners emptied their shops on Sunday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that the government will deal firmly with robbers. According to a report, as many as 56 people had been detained and 14 remanded in custody.
Turkish authorities took firm action against social media accounts making “provocative” posts which spread fear and panic amid people, reported Reuters.