Turkish rescuers pulled a 17-year-old girl from the quake rubble on Thursday as hopes of finding more survivors faded.
Aleyna Olmez was rescued 248 hours after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that destroyed entire cities and killed nearly 40,000 people. “She appeared to be in good health. She opened and closed her eyes,” miner Ali Akdogan, who took part in the rescue, told AFP in Kahramanmaras, a town close to the quake’s epicenter.
Incredible. If you call yourself Aleyna Olmez, you are 17 years old. Rescue this morning in Kahramanmaras 248 hours after the earthquake pic.twitter.com/DmOhjERZSD
-Sandro Pozzi (@sandro_pozzi) February 16, 2023
“We’ve been working in this building for a week… We came here hoping to hear noises,” he said. “We’re happy when we find something alive — even a cat.”
The young woman’s uncle hugged the rescuers in tears. “We will never forget you.”
After the rescue, Turkish rescue teams told media and residents to leave the site as they began to pull the bodies out of the rubble.
Authorities and medics said 36,187 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria since the February 6 earthquake and aftershocks, bringing the officially confirmed total to 39,875.
Turkey has suspended rescue operations in some regions.
Source: DN
