They continue to find earthquake survivors; 28,000 dead

LATAKIA, Turkey (AP) — Ibrahim Zakaria lost track of time and was at times unconscious during the nearly five days he was trapped in the rubble of his home after a massive earthquake struck Turkey and Syria this week.

A 23-year-old mobile phone shop worker from the Syrian town of Jableh survived on drops of dirty water and eventually gave up hope of rescue.

“I said: I am dead and it will be impossible for me to live again,” Zakaria, who was rescued on Friday evening, told The Associated Press on Saturday from a hospital bed in the coastal city of Latakia, where his 60-year-old mother Duha Nurallah is also recovering.

Five days after two powerful earthquakes within hours of each other caused thousands of buildings to collapse, leaving more than 28,000 dead and millions homeless, rescuers were still pulling survivors from the ruins, including the one was only 7 months old. .

Although each rescue provoked hugs and cries of “Allahu akbar!” -” God is big !

More than a dozen survivors were rescued on Saturday, including a family in Kahramanmaras, the Turkish town closest to the epicenter of Monday’s quake. Rescuers carried 12-year-old Nehir Naz Narli to safety before returning to pick up his parents.

In Gaziantep province, which borders Syria, a family of five were rescued from a collapsed building in the town of Nurdagi, and a man and his 3-year-old daughter were pulled from the rubble in the town of Islahiye , the channel reported. Haber Turk TV channel. A 7-year-old girl was also rescued in Hatay province.

In Elbistan, a district of Kahramanmaras province, Melisa Ulku, 20, and others were pulled from the rubble 132 hours after the quake. Before she was taken to safety, police asked those present not to clap or applaud so as not to interfere with nearby rescue efforts.

A 44-year-old man in Iskenderun, Hatay province, was rescued after 138 hours of ordeal, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported. Rescuers called it a tearful miracle, with one saying they hadn’t expected to find anyone alive, but as they dug they saw his eyes and he uttered his name. In the same province, NTV also reported that a baby named Hamza was found alive in Antakya 140 hours after the earthquake. Some details of his rescue, including how he survived so long, weren’t immediately clear.

Not all rescue attempts had a happy ending. Zeynep Kahraman, who was pulled from the rubble after a spectacular 50-hour rescue, died overnight in hospital. The German ISAR team that rescued her was shocked and saddened.

“It’s important that the family can say goodbye, that they can see each other again, that they can kiss again,” a member of the rescue team told German news channel n -TV.

The rescues came at a time of growing frustration with the Turkish government’s response to the earthquake, which killed 24,617 people and injured at least 80,000 in Turkey alone.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged days ago that the initial response had been hampered by extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure, making it difficult to access some places. He also said the hardest hit area was 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and home to 13.5 million people in the country.

This means that rescue teams had to choose how and where to help.

During a tour of quake-damaged towns on Saturday, Erdogan said a disaster of this magnitude was unusual, again calling it the “disaster of the century”.

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Spike reported from Antakya, Turkey, and Bilginsoy from Istanbul. Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Ghaith Alsayed in Bab al-Hawa, Syria, Sarah El Deeb in Antakya, Turkey, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.