Survivors are still being found as the earthquake death toll exceeds 28,000 in Turkey and Syria

LATAKIA, Syria (AP) — Ibrahim Zakaria lost track of time as he drifted in and out of consciousness while trapped for nearly five days under the rubble of his home in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria this week.

A 23-year-old mobile phone shop worker from the Syrian town of Jableh survived on trickles of dirty water and finally gave up hope of being rescued.

“I said I was dead and that it would be impossible for me to live again,” Zakaria, who was rescued Friday night, told The Associated Press on Saturday from his hospital bed in the coastal city of Latakia where he is 60. The old mother, Duha Nourallah, was also recovering.

Five days after two powerful earthquakes two hours apart caused thousands of buildings to collapse, killing more than 28,000 people and displacing millions, rescuers were still pulling unexpected survivors from the rubble – one just 7 months old.

Beware: Deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria leaves millions homeless

Although each rescue elicited hugs and shouts of “Allahu Akbar!” – “Allah is the greatest!” —of the exhausted men and women working tirelessly in freezing temperatures to save lives, they were the exception in a region shrouded in grief, despair, and mounting frustration.

More than a dozen survivors were rescued on Saturday, including a family in Kahramanmaras, the Turkish city closest to the epicenter of Monday’s quake. The crew there helped 12-year-old Nehir Naz Narli get to safety before returning to her parents.

In Gaziantep province, which borders Syria, a family of five was rescued from a demolished building in the city of Nordağı, and a man and his 3-year-old daughter were pulled from the rubble in the reformatory town, Haber Turk TV reported. A 7-year-old girl was also rescued in Hatay Province.

In El-Bostan, a district in Kahramanmaras province, 20-year-old Melissa Olku and another person were rescued from the rubble 132 hours after the earthquake. Before being taken to safety, the police asked spectators not to cheer or clap so as not to interfere with the nearby rescue effort.

Members of a Greek rescue team work at the site of a collapsed building, as the search continues for survivors, following the deadly earthquake, in Hatay, Turkey, February 11, 2023. Photo by Kemal Aslan/Reuters

Turkish television station NTV reported that a 44-year-old man in Iskenderun, in Hatay province, was rescued after 138 hours of ordeal. The crying rescuers called it a miracle, one of whom said that they did not expect to find anyone alive, but while they were digging, they saw his eyes and he said his name. In the same province, NTV also reported that a baby named Hamza was found alive in Antakya 140 hours after the earthquake. Some details of his rescue, including how he survived for so long, weren’t immediately clear.

Not every attempt ended happily. Zeynep Kahraman, who was pulled from the rubble after an incredible 50-hour rescue operation, died in a hospital overnight. The German ISAR team that rescued her were shocked and saddened.

“It is important for the family to say goodbye, to see each other again, to be able to hug each other again,” a member of the rescue team told German television news channel NTV.

The rescue operations came amid growing frustration with the Turkish government’s response to the earthquake, which killed 24,617 people and injured at least 80,000 in Turkey alone.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted earlier in the week that the initial response was hampered by extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure that made access to some points difficult. He also said that the worst affected area is 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and home to 13.5 million people in Turkey.

This meant rescue crews had to pick and choose how and where to help.

During a tour of quake-hit cities on Saturday, Erdogan said a disaster of this scale was rare and referred to it again as the “disaster of the century”.

WATCH: Rescue operations continue in Turkey and Syria as hope of finding earthquake survivors fades

But the challenges facing the aid effort have not been comforting to those waiting for help.

In Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, scattered rescue crews were still working hard but many residents had left by Saturday. Among those who remained there were people with their families who are still buried. Many of them had been camping out on the streets for days, sleeping in cars.

Based on a tip, a rescue team from Hong Kong found three survivors under a building near the city center on Saturday, said Gallant Wong, a spokesman for the group.

But Bulent Sevcivili, a local man, said he had been waiting for days for crews to pull his mother’s body from her collapsed home. At one point, he said, rescuers were working to recover her body, but were called to another location because they suspected survivors.

“After six days, we don’t know how many are still under the rubble, how many are dead or alive,” Sevsifli said, blaming a lack of heavy equipment.

Yazi Al-Ali, a Syrian refugee who came to Antakya from Reyhanli, lives in a tent waiting for crews to find her mother and two sisters, one of whom is pregnant, and their families. Once, she stood over the ruins of the house in the center of the ancient city of Antakya where she believed her pregnant sister was buried, and with a crackling voice, she exclaimed her sister’s name, “Rajah!”

She said, “No one answers us, and no one comes to see.” They prevented us from looking at ourselves. i don’t know why.”

Although experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the odds of finding additional survivors are rapidly diminishing. Rescuers have been turning to using thermal cameras to help identify life in the rubble, a sign that the remaining survivors may be too weak to call for help.

Rescue team members work at the site of a collapsed building, as the search continues for survivors, following the deadly earthquake, in Hatay, Turkey, February 11, 2023. REUTERS/Kemal Aslan

As aid continued to arrive on Saturday, a group of 99 members of the Indian Army’s medical aid team began treating injured people at a makeshift field hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun, where a main hospital has been demolished.

A man, Sukru Canpolat, was wheeled to the hospital, his left leg badly injured with bruises, bruises and deep cuts.

In great pain, he said, he was rescued from his collapsed apartment building in nearby Antakya within hours of the quake. But after receiving basic first aid, he was released without proper treatment.

“I buried (everyone I lost), and then I came here,” Kanpolat said, counting his dead relatives. “My daughter died, my brother died, my aunt and her daughter died, and her daughter-in-law” who was eight and a half months pregnant.

A large temporary cemetery was under construction on the outskirts of Antakya on Saturday. Bulldozers and bulldozers dug holes in the field as trucks and ambulances laden with black body bags arrived continuously. Soldiers directing traffic on the busy adjacent road warned motorists not to take pictures.

Read more: How to help victims of the 7.8 earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Hundreds of graves, spaced no more than three feet (meters) apart, are marked with simple planks of wood set vertically in the ground.

A worker at Turkey’s Ministry of Religious Affairs who did not wish to be identified due to orders not to share information with the media said about 800 bodies were brought to the cemetery on Friday, its first day of operation. By midday on Saturday, he said, as many as 2,000 people had been buried.

The disaster has compounded the suffering in a region reeling from Syria’s 12-year-old civil war, which has displaced millions of people within the country and left them dependent on aid. The fighting sent millions more to Turkey.

The conflict has isolated many areas of Syria and complicated aid delivery efforts. The United Nations said the first earthquake-related aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday, a day after an aid shipment scheduled before the disaster arrived. The United Nations refugee agency has estimated that up to 5.3 million people are left homeless in Syria alone.

The death toll in the rebel-held area of ​​northwest Syria has reached 2,166, according to the rescue group the White Helmets. The total death toll in Syria reached 3,553 on Saturday, although the 1,387 deaths reported in government-held parts of the country had not been updated for days.

Spike reported from Antakya, Turkey, and Belgensoy reported from Istanbul. Bassem Maro in Beirut, Ghaith al-Sayed in Bab al-Hawa, Syria, Sarah El-Deeb in Antakya, Turkey, and Susan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

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