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Turkey earthquake: Four-year-old girl rescued after 91 hours

Friday's powerful earthquake shook the country's Aegean coast, killing at least 102 people and injuring hundreds of others as buildings gave way in Izmir province.

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Four-year-old Ayla Gezgin, is being pulled from the debris of Riza Bey apartment, 91 hours after a magnitude 6.6 quake shook Turkey's Aegean Sea coast, in Izmir, Turkey on November 03, 2020.

A four-year-old girl has been pulled out of the rubble alive days after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit Turkey's Aegean region.

Ayla Gezgin was rescued on Tuesday in the Bayrakli district of the Aegean Izmir province 91 hours after the quake.

Ayla, the 107th survivor to be rescued, was taken to hospital.

On Twitter, Mehmet Gulluoglu, the head of Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), expressed happiness at the little girl's rescue.

Speaking to reporters following Ayla's rescue, a rescue team member, Nusret Aksoy, said he spotted the struggling young girl waving her hand.

Death toll rises

The death toll from last week’s powerful earthquake in Turkey’s Aegean region has risen to 102, authorities have said.

According to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) statement on Tuesday, 147 victims are still under treatment, while 847 more have been discharged from hospitals.

A total of 1,464 aftershocks – 44 of them with a magnitude higher than 4.0 – have been recorded since last Friday’s 6.6-magnitude quake rattled Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city that is home to more than 4.3 million, the agency said.

Two teenagers also died on the Greek island of Samos, Greek authorities had said earlier.

At least 994 people had been injured in Izmir, the disaster agency said.

No place to call home

Some 1,225 aftershocks have hit the area since then, with 43 of them above magnitude 4, the disaster agency said earlier on Monday.

Speaking at a news conference in the western Izmir province a day earlier, Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum updated the number of heavily damaged and destroyed buildings to 58.

Temporary accommodation has been established to meet the urgent need for shelter in the city of Izmir, with 3,545 tents, 57 general-purpose tents, 24,382 blankets, 13,280 beds, 5,500 sleeping sets, 2,657 kitchen sets and four showers and toilet containers shipped to the zone, the disaster agency said.

At least 1,864 tents have been installed, with the set up of 2,038 underway.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he was "determined to heal the wounds of our brothers and sisters in Izmir before the cold and rains begin." He added that Turkey stands by the "citizens affected by the earthquake."

Three-year-old rescued after 65 hours

Elif Perincek, 3, was pulled from debris in the Bayrakli district of western Izmir province nearly 65 hours after the quake.

Elif was the 106th person to be rescued from the rubble and she was taken to hospital.

"A thousand thanks to you, my God. We have brought out our little one Elif from the apartment block," Mehmet Gulluoglu, head of AFAD, wrote on Twitter.

About 23 hours after the quake, Elif’s mother Seher Dereli Perincek and her 10-year-old twin siblings Ezel and Elzem and her seven-year-old brother Umut Perincek were pulled from the rubble. Umut died, while the mother and the twins are under treatment.

Speaking to reporters following the rescue operation for Elif, firefighter Muammer Celik shared the intense emotions of pulling the girl out to safety, saying: “Elif held my finger […] I cleaned dust on her face.”

Celik said he took her out together with a co-worker and added that Elif did not leave his finger until they reached the first aid tent.

"That child deserves to live to the end," he said.

As firefighters, he said, they never lose hope "until the very last moment".

"We never lost hope for Elif, as well."

Among the first responders to reach Elif, Tolga Unsel, a paramedic from the National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE), said that she was still when they reached her.

At first we thought she died, Unsel said, but later she moved her eyes when she was being extricated from the rubble. “It was truly a miracle for us."

The rescuers said the hospital had admitted her to the ICU as a precaution.

Turkey's quakes

Turkey is among the world's most seismically active zones as it is situated on several active fault lines. It has suffered devastating earthquakes in the past as well.

The Izmir earthquake was the deadliest in Turkey since one in the eastern city of Van in 2011 that killed more than 500 people. A quake in January this year killed 41 people in the eastern province of Elazig.

Turkey is crossed by fault lines and is prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two powerful quakes killed 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies