In a ray of hope for rescue workers amid an increasingly grim recovery mission, a two-year-old boy has been pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey 79 hours after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Mert Tatar was alert and smiling as he emerged from a hole in the rubble of a collapsed building in Antakya, prompting cheers from the surrounding rescue team, who quickly wrapped him in a blanket.
It is one of a handful of success stories to come from the front lines of an increasingly desperate rescue mission to save survivors battling freezing temperatures and hunger, more than three days after the initial earthquake.
Earlier in the night, a 10-year-old girl was rescued alive in the same district of Turkey’s Hatay province.
DHA news agency said after making initial contact with the child, rescuers worked 32 hours at the site to clear a passage to her.
Medics had to amputate one of her arms to free the girl from the rubble because removing the block that was crushing her would have endangered her further, the news agency reported.
An hour before that, rescuers pulled a 17-year-old girl out of rubble in Adiyaman province.
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Miners and others brought her out and medics took her to an ambulance on a stretcher with an IV bag hanging.
They briefly clapped before a rescuer asked for quiet.
Also, a 20-year-old was rescued in Kahramanmaras by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation workers, who shouted “God is Great”.
Their medical conditions were unknown.
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