A miracle, or almost. Deniz Dal, a woman in her 30s, and a five-year-old child, Melih Efe Ozcan, were pulled alive from the rubble before being hospitalized on Sunday, six days after the earthquake in Turkey, by a team of Salvadorans in Sehit Aileleri.
“The Salvadorian rescue team, with the support of Turkish rescuers, has just successfully rescued two survivors, a woman and a child, after more than 150 hours under the rubble,” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter.
The president attached a video to his message in which a motionless child can be seen being pulled out of the rubble by Salvadoran rescuers and placed on a stretcher, while people around the scene hear cries and cries. We then see the moment when a woman, who manages to move her arms, has come out in turn before an orthopedic collar is placed on her and she is laid on a stretcher.
More than 33,000 dead
The rescue took place on Sunday morning under the rubble of the Ebrar Sitesi Hazal Apartmani building, in Sehit Aileleri, in the municipality of Kahramanmaras, in southern Turkey, according to the presidency of El Salvador. “Authorities have reported that the minor showed signs of hypothermia,” according to the presidency.
El Salvador had dispatched a 100-strong rescue team to Turkey on Wednesday, including 58 search and rescue specialists, 42 firefighters and doctors and several dogs.
According to the latest official reports, the earthquake of February 6, of magnitude 7.8, caused at least 33,179 deaths: 29,605 in Turkey and 3,574 in Syria.