More miracles after the earthquake in Turkey: Six days later the survivors are still being rescued from the rubble

Six and a half days after the earthquake which has devastated large regions of southeastern Turkey, rescue teams still managed to pull people alive from the rubble on Sunday. Some, even, in a surprising state of integrity.

With the death toll from the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday already surpasses 33,000, relief efforts remain in a race against time.

And while the chances of finding trapped people alive begin to dwindle, there are still miracles.

in the middle of a devastating scenario and freezing, tens of thousands of local and foreign first responders work among the ruins looking for signs of life. And although time is running out according to experts, there are still survivors.

One of the latest was that of an eight-year-old boy who was pulled out wounded but alive in the town of Nurdagi, in the province of Gaziantep, after spending 155 hours in the rubble.

Earlier, teams had pulled two sisters, aged 22 and 28, from a collapsed building in Adiyaman, northeast of the epicenter, after being trapped for 152 hours.

Another little girl, aged three or four, also resisted almost 155 hours and was rescued this Sunday in Antioquia, one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake, where the historic center was practically completely destroyed.

Just an hour earlier, in the same city, a 35-year-old man came out alive after five hours of work, as well as an 85-year-old woman, trapped for 152 hours in a 30-centimetre space, but safe and sound.

a seven month old baby called Hamza he was rescued alive more than 140 hours after the earthquake in Hatay province (southern Turkey) and 13-year-old teenager Esma Sultan was rescued in nearby Gaziantep, according to state media.

“Is the world still there?” wondered Menekse Tabak, 70, as she was pulled from the rubble in the city of Kahramanmaras on Saturday, according to a video by state broadcaster TRT Haber.

In the same city, a 32-year-old teacher was rescued after 140 hours in the rubble and did not hesitate to ask her rescuers for a glass of hot tea, Turkish public broadcaster TRT reported.

A 12-year-old girl in Nizip city, Gaziantep province, who had survived 147 hours under the rubble, was also rescued alive.

Low temperatures, around freezing in much of the region, are exacerbating conditions for relief, but it may have helped save some livesas explained to EFE by members of the Spanish fire brigade operating in the area.

Rubble stores some heat, so it’s less cold under a collapsed building than outside, but because it’s not hot, people trapped don’t sweat and dehydrate as quickly as they would in the summer.

homeless, hungry and cold

Time is running out not only for those suspected of being trapped in the destruction, but for hundreds of thousands of people affected, homeless, hungry and cold.

“Soon, search and rescue people will give way to humanitarian agencies whose job it is to take care of the extraordinary number of people affected in the coming months,” warned UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who estimated on Sunday that the total number The death toll in Turkey and Syria from the earthquake could exceed 60,000.

The United Nations has warned that up to 5.3 million people are left homeless in Syria alone and at least 870,000 are in desperate need of food in both countries.

Source: EFE and AFP