Triple rescue electrifies Turkey quake recovery

TURKEY: The rescue of a two-week-old baby girl, her mother and grandmother from the rubble of Turkey’s devastating earthquake has electrified emergency crews as their search stretched into a fourth day.

Crowds cheered and applauded as tiny Azra Karaduman was lifted free from the wreckage of the family home in the eastern town of Ercis on Tuesday, followed by her mother Seniha and 73-year-old grandmother Gulzade.

As the death toll reached 459 and the Red Crescent warned that hundreds or even thousands of people remained buried under the debris from Sunday’s quake, the triple rescue provided vital relief amid the otherwise grim task.

“It is priceless to find someone alive and all my exhaustion is over,” said Oytun Gulpinar, the leader of a team of rescuers who had arrived in Ercis after a 32-hour road journey from the western city of Izmir.

“I got to hold a 16-day-old baby, which is utterly priceless,” he added. Azra was brought out by Kadir Direk, the smallest member of the Izmir team, who described how he managed to squeeze through the debris and then scoop her off the lap of her mother.

“I was the happiest person in the world when I held her,” said the 35-year-old.

“When I took her from her mother, she asked me to give her a second name.” He chose Aysenur, combining the name of the Prophet Mohammed’s wife and the word “light”.

AFP