Three new survivors, including a 14-year-old boy, have been rescued from the rubble of Antakya, in southern Turkey, more than 260 hours after the earthquake that devastated the region, Turkish authorities and the press reported on Friday.
Mustafa, 33, and Mehmet, 26, were saved “261 hours” after the earthquake, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Twitter.
CNN Türk TV channel featured them as Mustafa Avci and Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu respectively.
Just before, at the “260th hour”, a 14-year-old boy was also extracted from the ruins of his building in the center of Antakya “after intense efforts”, reported the minister.
Mr. Koca specifies that the teenager named Osman underwent “an intervention” in a hospital in the province, without specifying the seriousness, but he appears conscious in the photo.
According to the DHA news agency, the two men, Mehmet and Mustafa were in the rubble of the same building, in the center of Antakya, when they were discovered by the emergency services.
The Minister indicates that they were immediately taken to the hospital.
“Our brother Mustafa remembered the phone number of a relative that he was able to call”, says the minister who also broadcasts a short video.
We hear the young man asking: “Is my mother okay?” and display a broad smile when his interlocutor, in tears, replies: “Everyone is fine!”.
The latest official death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6 at 4 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT) exceeds 41,000.
The last survivors discovered by the rescuers, while the search is gradually ceasing, were all found in the province of Hatay, around Antakya, near the Syrian border.
The chances of survival now seem lower, further north, around the epicenter of the earthquake in mountainous regions such as Kahramanmaras, and even snowy regions of Elbistan and Adiyaman, where the thermometer dropped to -15°C at night. , noted the AFP teams.