Iran Press/ Asia: Eleven days after the quake hit, three survivors were dug out from the rubble in Türkiye on Friday.
The death toll in Türkiye stands at 39,672, while neighbouring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths. Syria’s toll has not changed for days.
Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Türkiye, the ex-Chelsea winger’s Turkish agent said.
Mosques around the world on Friday performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Türkiye and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the scale of the disaster.
While many international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone, domestic teams continued to search through flattened buildings on Saturday hoping to find more survivors who defied the odds. Experts say most rescues occur in the 24 hours following an earthquake.
Hakan Yasinoglu, in his 40s, was rescued in the southern province of Hatay, 278 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the dead of night on February 6th, the Istanbul Fire Brigade said.
Earlier, Osman Halebiye (14) and Mustafa Avci (34), were saved in Türkiye’s historic city of Antakya, known in ancient times as Antioch. As Avci was carried away, he was put on a video call with his parents, who showed him his newborn baby.
“I had completely lost all hope. This is a true miracle. They gave me my son back. I saw the wreckage and I thought nobody could be saved alive from there,” his father said.
An exhausted Avci was later reunited with his wife Bilge and daughter Almile at a hospital in Mersin.
Aid organisations say the survivors will need help for months to come with so much crucial infrastructure destroyed.
Neither Türkiye nor Syria have said how many people are still missing following the quake.
For families still waiting to retrieve relatives in Türkiye, there is growing anger over what they see as corrupt building practices and deeply flawed urban development that resulted in thousands of homes and businesses disintegrating.
Türkiye has promised to investigate anyone suspected of responsibility for the collapse of buildings and has ordered the detention of more than 100 suspects, including developers.
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