Buried 33 Hours In The Earthquake, A 70 Year Old Turkish Man Was Rescued

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - A 70-year-old man was pulled from the rubble of a building in western Turkey on Sunday morning after being buried under rubble for 33 hours after a powerful earthquake rocked Turkey's Aegean coast and Greek islands.

Reported by Antara, Sunday, November 1, the man, identified as Ahmet Citim, was rescued from the rubble of the residential building of Riza Bey, one of 20 residential buildings that collapsed during the earthquake.

The death toll from the earthquake, which occurred on Friday, October 30, afternoon, increased to 51.

Turkish authorities have announced that 49 people died in the coastal city of Izmir, while two teenagers died on the Greek island of Samos.

Officials said 20 buildings were destroyed in Izmir's Bayrakli district, which is in the process of urban transformation, due to a lack of earthquake resistance.

Turkey is crossed by fault lines and prone to earthquakes. In 1999, two strong earthquakes killed 18,000 people in northwest Turkey.

Friday's earthquake, which according to the Kandilli Institute in Istanbul was 6.9 magnitude, was centered in the Aegean Sea, northeast of Samos.

President Tayyip Erdogan said 885 people were injured, 15 of them critically.

I'll Play Violin

Inch Okan, who is sixteen years old, was trapped under the rubble of the same eight-story building as the elderly man for 17 hours.

Inch Okan along with his dog Fistik (Pistachio) were rescued.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca and member of the National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE) Edanur Dogan visited Okan at the hospital.

Emergency workers Dogan held the girl's hand while rescuers lifted debris above it.

"I'm so happy. Thank God my dad isn't home. My dad won't fit there. I'm small. I'm short so I can fit and that's how I was saved. We stayed at home with my dog. We're both fine, "said Okan who was lying on the hospital bed.

Okan promised to play the violin for Dogan after being discharged from the hospital.

"I'll play the violin for you, I promise."