A 70-year-old man rescued from collapsed construction in Turkey, 34 hours after a primary earthquake shook the country and Greece, killing at least 60 other people and injuring another 900.
Ahmet Citim said he “never gave up hope” of being pulled from the rubble of Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, according to a tweet from Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.
Video images show rescuers clapping and clapping as Mr. Citim was taken on a stretcher for hospital treatment as the search continued in nine buildings in Izmir.
The earthquake shook the Aegean Sea on Friday, with a debate about its magnitude.
The U. S. Geological Survey said it had a magnitude of 7. 0, while the Kandilli Institute in Istanbul put it at 6. 9, and Turkey’s Presidency for Emergency and Disaster Management (AFAD) said it measured 6. 6.
This caused mini-tsunamis in many low coastal areas, with Izmir and the Greek island of Samos being the most affected spaces; many aftershocks were felt.
Two teenagers died in Samos after being hit through a collapsed wall and at least 19 other people were injured on the island.
In Izmir, 16-year-old Inci Okan was also trapped under the rubble of the same eight-story construction as Citim, before being rescued 17 hours after the earthquake.
His dog Fistik, which means pistachio in English, was also saved. Cats and rabbits were also rescued.
Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and rescuer Edanur Dogan, who held the teenage girl’s hand as teams got rid of the rubble on her, visited her at the hospital.
Speaking from his bed there, he said, “I’m very happy. Fortunately, my father’s not home. My father couldn’t go. He’d hurt his head. “
“I’m small,” she added, saying, “I’m small, so I sned and that’s how I saved.
“We stayed home with my dog. We’re fine. ” He then promised to play the violin for Mr. Dogan after his release.
Authorities said 20 buildings had been destroyed in the Bayrakli community of Izmir, which became a city due to a lack of earthquake resistance.
On Saturday night, Turkey’s President Erdogan said another 103 people had been rescued since the earthquake, as well as three young men and their mother.
More than 5,700 rescuers from other agencies and towns worked together to succeed in survivors, silence crowds to pay attention to debris with sensitive headphones, and move slowly through cracks.
Turkey crosses through fault lines and is earthquakes.
In 1999, two strong earthquakes killed another 18,000 people in the northwest of the country, while earthquakes are also not unusual in Greece.
The earthquake occurred at a time when Turkey was already suffering from an economic recession and the coronavirus pandemic.