Earthquake.. Van, Turkey: Rescue teams still racing against time to save more lives

Search and rescue teams are engaged in a frantic race to save the lives of survivors who are still trapped under the wreckage and debris of collapsed buildings in the eastern province of Van, nearly two days after the devastating earthquake.

Two-week-old baby girl Azra Karaduman, her mother and grandmother were rescued alive from the ruins of an apartment building 72 hours after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey, flattening more than 2,000 buildings and leaving at least 366 people dead.

Another quake victim, Abdullah Pinti, 22, was also rescued by professional teams on Monday evening after being trapped under rubble for 32 hours. After receiving a notice about a possible survivor underneath the wreckage in the Camii Kebir neighborhood in the Erciş district, the teams began searching through the ruins from three different spots.

Pinti was reached only after search and rescue teams uncovered two more dead bodies along the way and conducted intense listening activities among the wreckage. Due to the presence of dense crowds around the rescue zone, team members sometimes had to ask citizens to keep quiet for their sound devices to work.

Some 24 injured survivors were rescued between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m. on Monday, according to reports.

Hilal Altınkaynak, a seventh-grade elementary school student, was rescued after teams spent some 25 hours removing her from the debris. Altınkaynak was initially treated in a field hospital and is reported to be in good condition.

Yalçın Akay, who was trapped under the rubble of a six-story building in the Camii Kebir neighborhood was saved by civil defense teams after he managed to call a police emergency hotline.

Akay described his location to the police, who subsequently alerted the civil defense teams. Akay had an injury to his right leg and was carried off to a hospital by ambulance.

Yunus passes away

Yunus Geray, a 13-year-old child who recently captured the country’s attention after being saved by a man who shielded him with his body during the quake, passed away yesterday.

Teams who uncovered some 10 dead bodies inside the ruins of a building heard a faint cry in the middle of the night on Sunday. When he was told it was 10 p.m. However, Geray lost consciousness and his heart gave out while he was on the road to the hospital.

October 25, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News