Officials and doctors said 36,187 people had died in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria.
Kahramanmaras (Turkey):
Turkish rescuers on Thursday pulled a 17-year-old girl from the rubble of last week’s devastating earthquake, as hopes for more survivors faded.
Alina Olmez was rescued 248 hours after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the entire city, killing some 40,000 people in southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria.
“She seemed to be in good health,” Ali Akdogan, a coal miner involved in the rescue, told AFP in Kahramanmaras, a town near the epicenter. He opened and closed his eyes.
“We have been working here in this building for a week… We have come here with the hope of hearing voices,” he said.
“Whenever we find a living thing – even a cat, we are happy.”
The girl’s uncle tearfully told the rescuers one by one: “We will never forget you.”
But after the rescue, Turkish soldiers asked media and locals to leave the scene as teams began pulling bodies from the rubble.
Officials and medics said 36,187 people in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria were killed by the February 6 earthquake and aftershocks, bringing the officially confirmed total to 39,875.
Turkey has postponed rescue operations in some cases. In war-torn Syria, the government has done the same in areas under its control.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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