CATASTROPHE: Aleyna Ölmez – whose surname in Turkish means “she who does not die” – is one of the few survivors still discovered
There is now little hope of finding survivors from the rubble eleven days after the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria. However, a 17-year-old girl was saved on Thursday, noted an AFP journalist. Aleyna Ölmez – whose surname in Turkish means “the one who does not die” – is one of the rare survivors still discovered under the rubble despite the cold and violence of the February 6 earthquake which killed more than 36,000 people in Turkey.
The girl had been buried under the rubble of her apartment building in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, for 248 hours. At the time of the rescue, she was conscious and was able to close and open her eyes following the instructions of medical teams, a rescuer told AFP. In tears, her uncle embraced one by one the volunteers who rescued her from the rubble.
“We were so happy. Seeing the joy of the family is incomparable,” said Ismail, a first aider. Made up largely of miners from different towns in the country, volunteers are still busy trying to find survivors in the ruins. “All miners will tell you the same thing. We came here hoping to locate a sound coming from a survivor,” said Ali Akdogan, a miner. “Even if the sound we locate is that of a cat, we will also try to save it.”
