'Ridiculous' message saying '8' draws rescuers toward Türkiye survivor

A "ridiculous" text message to his cousin has helped rescuers save Mustafa Sami Sahin from the rubble of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras' Elbistan district, the epicentre of twin quakes that struck southern Türkiye earlier this week.

After many unsuccessful text messages attempts from the rubble of a seven-storey building for 102 hours, 33-year-old Sahin's mobile phone misfired a random text message saying "8" to his cousin, who then called rescuers. 

"It wasn't a deliberate text message. None of the messages I tried to text were sent. A ridiculous message was sent to my cousin in Tekirdag by chance," Sahin told Anadolu Agency on Friday.

"Until the text message, no one had any idea whether I was under the wreckage, dead or alive, or somewhere else."

Trapped in a stairwell of the building, Sahin said he often thought: "'I guess it's over here.' I often questioned whether it would be better if I die or stay alive."

READ MORE: Türkiye teenager who drank 'urine to survive' is rescued after 94 hours

Death toll mounts

The unlikely rescues, coming so long after Monday's twin quakes brought down thousands of buildings, offered fleeting moments of joy amid a catastrophe that has killed nearly 24,000 people, injured at least 80,000 others and left millions homeless.

The numbers have soared to at least 20,318 people killed and 80,088 injured, officials said late on Friday.

The 7.7-and 7.6-magnitude earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, also including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

In neighbouring Syria, the death toll has climbed above 3,500. The UN says more than 5.3 million people may have become homeless because of the quakes and hundreds of aftershocks. 

READ MORE: Teary father celebrates daughter's rescue by Türkiye miners