At least 46,000 people have died in the earthquake, with bodies still being recovered (Picture: Anadolu)
A Turkish fireman has adopted a cat who won’t leave his side after he saved him from the rubble.
Ali Cakas, 33, rescued Enkaz – meaning debris in Turkish – from the ruins of a collapsed apartment block 129 hours after the quake.
Given food and water, the black and white cat has become Ali’s new shadow as he desperately searches for survivors in Turkey’s eastern Gaziantep province.
Heartwarming images and footage of Ali and Enkaz amid the rubble of Nurdagi have touched people’s hearts everywhere.
Ali and his colleagues cared for Enkaz – who they said had ‘sad eyes’ – and are treating him as their mascot.
Enkaz’s old name is unknown (Picture: Getty Images)
Ali gave the traumatised cat food and water (Picture: Getty Images)
They hoped his owners might turn up, but when nobody came forward to claim him, it became clear they had died in the catastrophic double earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last Monday.
The rare feel-good story soon went viral amid a sea of loss and devastation caused by the quake, which has claimed 46,000 lives so far.
This figure is expected to rise even further as more bodies are recovered from the ruins.
Saying the two have ‘formed a nice bond’, Ali took Enkaz with him to his home in the city of Mardin, some 250 miles from Nurdagi.
He now enjoys being with his new family as they gather on the carpet to eat their meals.
‘My mother, father, brothers and sisters are supporting me,’ Ali said. ‘We see the cat as a member of the family.’
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Soon after the quake, Ali vowed he would never leave his new friend behind, believing their harrowing experience had tied them together.
‘We bonded quickly,’ he said. ‘We both had a tough time. We’ll get through this trauma by hugging each other.’
An Instagram account set up by Ali for Enkaz now has more than 19,000 followers, with social media users as far away as the UK, US, Chile and Argentina touched by the story of survival.
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‘We’ll get through this trauma by hugging each other.’
