A man trapped under the rubble for 140 hours in a quake-hit Turkish city was finally saved from the crush by rescuers.
rescued after 140 hours: Turkey News
Emergency crews could be seen talking to Muhammed Habib through a hole in the debris of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras before he was finally freed.
Last night video footage showed the 27-year-old singing verses of the Koran during a 10-hour operation to extricate him.
Habib pumped his fist in the air, yelling ‘God is greatest’, to the cheers of rescuers below as he was finally winched out by machinery.
The 7.8-magnitude quake hit southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria on Monday and ranks as the world’s seventh deadliest natural disaster this century.
In the following six days since the disaster crews have worked tirelessly to try and save others.
Crews pulled out two women, Menekse Tabak, 70, and Masallah Cicek, 55, from beneath the debris of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir, the largest city in southeast Turkey.
Habib could be seen as he pumped his fist in the air and said ‘God is the greatest’ as he was finally
The women were seen being wrapped in blankets before being taken away to hospital.
The city of Kahramanmaras was close to the epicenter of the first quake on Monday, which measured 7.8 on the Richter Scale.
Earlier today the death toll reached more than 30,000 people.
It has now been confirmed that 29,605 people have died in Turkey, while another 3,553 have been killed in Syria.
In Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the first quake efforts were still under way to reach other survivors too. However, those found alive remain the rare exception.
A large makeshift graveyard was under construction in Antakya’s outskirts on Saturday.
Thousands of people have been killed after the building’s collapsed last Monday (Picture: EPA)
Diggers and bulldozers dug pits in the field as trucks and ambulances loaded with black body bags arrived continuously.
The hundreds of graves, spaced no more than 3ft (1m) apart, were marked with simple wooden planks set vertically in the ground.
The picture is less clear of the plight across the border in Syria.
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Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said late on Saturday that warrants have been issued for the detention of 131 people suspected to being responsible for collapsed buildings.
Turkey’s justice minister has vowed to punish anyone responsible, and prosecutors have begun gathering samples of buildings for evidence on materials used in constructions.
Emergency crews could be seen talking to Muhammed Habib through a hole in the debris of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras before he was finally freed.
