In the Turkish province of Hatay, a man was rescued after spending 278 hours under piles of concrete. On Friday, February 17, the TV channel reports TRT.
The rescued 45-year-old man is called Hakan Yasinoglu. He was found in Defne County under the rubble of his own house, from which the man did not have time to run out before the building collapsed. He is reported to be in the hospital now. Doctors assess his condition as satisfactory.
Hatay is one of the Turkish provinces most affected by the earthquake. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing there. Earlier, at the 260th hour, a 12-year-old boy Osman was rescued there, and at the 261st hour, two more people were pulled out from under the rubble. All rescued were given first aid and hospitalized.
On February 15, a woman and two children were rescued in Khatai. They spent 228 hours under the rubble. In total, during the rescue operation, more than 8 thousand people were rescued from the rubble. In addition, rescuers pulled hundreds of animals from under the rubble. Veterinary hospitals have been opened in earthquake-hit regions. Animals are given first aid and sent to shelters.
At the moment, search and rescue operations in Turkey continue at the site of less than 200 destroyed buildings, under the rubble of which there may still be people. According to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay, rescue activities are taking place in all 10 provinces affected by earthquakes. He also added that out of 597,000 buildings inspected in the disaster area, 75,000 were either destroyed or severely damaged.
Earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 occurred on February 6 in the province of Kahramanmaras in southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria. The latest figures put the death toll at 38,044.
On February 14, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Hans Kluge, called the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria the worst natural disaster in the region in the last 100 years. According to Kluge, 26 million people in both countries are in need of humanitarian assistance.
In turn, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the search and rescue operation after the earthquakes in Turkey will last until the last survivor is removed from the rubble. The country’s authorities intend to allocate 100 thousand liras (about $5.3 thousand) to the families of the victims of the disaster for urgent needs. In addition, the construction of 30,000 residential buildings in the regions affected by earthquakes will begin in March.
