Rescue workers called for silence at a fallen apartment building in the southern Turkish city of Iskenderun on Wednesday after hearing signs of life beneath the mounds of rubble.Onlookers including family, friends and neighbours of the building’s residents stopped talking, while cranes and other machinery nearby were switched off.
After minutes of silence, rescuers called out for an ambulance, confirming that a woman had been found alive. The crowd broke into cheers and tears.
One woman, whose cousin and aunt lived in the building and are still missing, fell back onto a car bonnet and buried her face in her hands.
Onlookers told the BBC it marked the first time a survivor had been found at the six-storey apartment block since Monday’s earthquake reduced it to rubble.
Shortly before they were found, a body had been pulled from the debris just a few metres away.
Rescue workers and volunteers quickly formed a chain to carry the woman to a waiting ambulance.
Local residents said she was a single mother in her 50s who lived alone in the building. Her son stood by the ambulance and watched as she was carried down, they added.
Several onlookers said it gave them renewed hope that their own missing loved ones would be found. One said she was hoping for a “miracle”
.Rescue workers hugged as the woman was taken away – a rare moment of hope and happiness among so much devastation.
The mood at the Iskenderun apartment block quickly became sombre again as rescuers resumed the slow work of searching the rubble, largely by hand.
Local doctor Mehmet Riyat told the BBC medical staff had been overwhelmed since Monday.
Source: bbc.com
