A Sydney professor is nervously waiting to hear if his sister has been freed from the rubble of a building in Turkey after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and subsequent aftershocks hit the region two days ago.
Lecturer at Charles Sturt University Sullik Ucil said his sister Remziye was still trapped under the rubble, and that no rescue teams had arrived yet.
“Her husband and brother and some other relatives, they are trying to move the rubble but they can’t because they don’t have the equipment,” Ucil said.
“The good thing is yesterday they heard a voice… it was her most likely.
“Hopefully she is alive but we are still waiting on the good news.”
He described his sister as a “very compassionate” person who would always help the community.
Ucil has other extended family trapped under the rubble as well, who he is also waiting to hear about.
Owner of Turkish Gaziantep sweets shop in Sydney Zeki Atilgan said his mother and father were in Turkey.
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”They are having a really hard time at the moment, they are not allowed to go to their home,” Atilgan said.
“There is a lot of damage to the property and surrounding areas.
”Yesterday they started getting some help with food, they haven’t had any water, they haven’t had much food at all for the first couple days so it has been pretty hard for them.”
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He said a castle in his home city of Gaziantep has “crumbled”.
“I was there just last year and now looking at that how it has just disappeared overnight it is just unbelievable.”
The Sydney Opera House will be lit with a black ribbon in support of the disaster on Wednesday night.
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