New Delhi: At least three people, including two minors, have been rescued alive from rubble following the devastating earthquake, 10 days after it struck parts of Turkiye and Syria, according to a report by CNN. Recovery operations are underway as efforts to retrieve survivors have been affected by a cold winter spell across quake-stricken regions. At least 43,885 people have died across Turkiye and neighboring Syria following the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake, the report mentioned citing authorities.
17-year-old Aleyna Ölmez was being called the “miracle girl” when she was pulled alive from the rubble in Turkiye on Thursday, 248 hours after the Feb 6 disaster. Rescue efforts shift have shifted to recovery operations ten days after the fateful day.
After the “miracle girl”, 30-year-old Neslihan Kilic and a 12-year-old boy named Osman were pulled out alive. They told rescuers that there were more people buried nearby. The three joined a small group of earthquake survivors who defied predictions that the time for survival had passed earlier this week.
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In the cold winter spell, authorities are also facing logistical challenges of transporting aid into northwestern Syria amid an acute humanitarian crisis compounded by years of political strife.
According to CNN, Alyena was directly taken to Kahramanmaraş Sutcu Imam University Faculty of Medicine.
A video showed Aleyna’s miraculous rescue as she was pulled out of a collapsed structure's rubble. Her doctor Prof. Dilber said he was very surprised by Aleyna’s good health condition. “She couldn’t eat anything and drank nothing the whole time (when she was under the rubble), but she was still in a good condition,” he told TRT Haber.
Dr. Dilber added that “since she couldn’t move under the rubble at all, we could say that her inactivity has protected Aleyna a little and she needed energy and she has endured during this time, but I guess we can’t explain it that way.”
Kilic, the 30-year-old woman rescued on Thursday, was found in Kahramanmaras where she and her family used to live on the seventh floor of the Ebrar apartment complex, according to her brother-in-law Gazi Yildirim.
He told CNN Turk that her husband and two children – two and five years old – were still under the rubble.
Kilic's brother-in-law began crying when he told CNN Turk that they had already prepared Kilic’s grave. “May Allah save others. She has two children and a husband who is still under the rubble,” he said said.
In another surprising rescue, a 12-year-old boy named Osman was rescued in southern Hatay province.
According to CNN Turk, he too appeared to be in relatively good condition. He was found in a sitting position in a hole surrounded by beams and rubble. He was taken to a hospital for medical check-up.
Osman told the rescue team that there was another person in the same location.
According to news agency Anadolu, a 77-year-old woman was pulled alive from the rubble in the city of Adiyaman on Tuesday some 212 hours after the earthquake struck.