1 of 1 Aleyna Olmez was pulled from the rubble of an apartment building — Photo: Portal Aleyna Olmez was pulled from the rubble of an apartment building — Photo: Portal
A young girl was rescued about 248 hours after the devastating earthquake hit Turkey last week.
Aleyna Olmez, 17, was pulled from the rubble in Kahramanmaraş, a city in the south of the country and near the quake’s epicenter.
“We will never forget you,” said the girl’s uncle, crying, hugging the rescuers.
Aleyna survived 10 days, injured and in rather cold weather. But rescues like hers are becoming increasingly rare.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 41,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Neither country announced the number of missing.
Aleyna was pulled from the rubble of an apartment building, Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber reported.
“She appeared to be in good health. She opened and closed her eyes,” Ali Akdogan, a miner who took part in the rescue, told AFP.
“We’ve been working here in this building for a week… We’ll be happy if we find any living thing, even a cat,” he added.
But the celebrations didn’t last long. Shortly after the rescue, Turkish soldiers ordered people to leave as teams had found bodies that would soon be taken away.
In the same city, three women and two children were found alive on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the United Nations (UN) launched a US$1 billion (R$5.2 billion) “appeal” to help victims in Turkey.
The funding will help 5.2 million people over the next three months and allow humanitarian organizations to “rapidly scale up” their support, said António Guterres, UN SecretaryGeneral, in a statement.
In Syria, the United Nations said more than 100 trucks loaded with supplies have transited the northwest of the country since the Syrian government agreed to allow the United Nations to use two more border crossings.
Aid includes tents, blankets, heaters, food, medicine and cholera testing kits, the organization said.