Turkey: Five rescued from rubble 9 days after quake

Five people were rescued alive this Wednesday after being trapped under rubble for 9 days following earthquakes that devastated southeastern Turkey and killed at least 40,000 people in that country and Syria.

The latest rescue took place around 1300 GMT in Antioquia, one of the cities with the highest levels of destruction, where rescuers pulled a woman and her two young children out of the rubble alive after 228 hours of being trapped.

Just an hour before, rescuers were able to pull out a living 74-year-old woman, Cemile Kekech, in the city of Kahramanmaras, not far from the epicenter of the accident. earthquakes.

In the same city, a 42-year-old woman, Melike Imamoglu, was found alive in a collapsed building after search parties heard her distress calls.

A member of the rescue team told Hürriyet newspaper that the woman was not only safe and sound after 222 hours in the rubble, but even “better than those outside,” something inexplicable, he said.

These five almost miraculous rescues add to that of another woman, 77-year-old Fatma Gungor, who was rescued shortly before midnight last night in the city of Adiyaman.

Salvation Factors

Low temperatures, which were close to zero degrees or even lower throughout the affected region, can under certain circumstances help the survival of people trapped, experts from the Madrid fire brigade, who have been involved in it for several years, explained to EFE. , days in rescue operations.

They explained that crushed concrete protected from extreme cold, and because it was not hot, the body did not sweat and dehydrate, as in summer, when the chances of survival are only two or three days.

The death toll for both earthquakesstrength of 7.7 and 7.6, already exceeds 35,000 in Turkey and 5,000 in Syria, but there are fears that it could be much more once the debris is cleared.

(As reported by EFE)

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Fernando Carvallo selects information and shares his vision of national and international news. subscribe to our Las cosas newsletter, as they should be reading your daily columns.