More than 46,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, and the toll is expected to soar with some 264,000 apartments in Turkey destroyed and many still missing in the country’s worst modern disaster.
Eleven days after the quake hit, three survivors were dug out from the rubble in Turkey on Friday. The death toll in Turkey stands at 39,672, while neighbouring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths.
Mosques around the world on Friday performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites.
While many international rescue teams have left the vast quake zone, domestic teams continued to search through flattened buildings on Saturday hoping to find more survivors who defied the odds. Experts say most rescues occur in the 24 hours following an earthquake.
Hakan Yasinoglu, in his 40s, was rescued in the southern province of Hatay, 278hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the dead of night on February 6, the Istanbul Fire Brigade said. Earlier, Osman Halebiye, 14, and Mustafa Avci, 34, were saved in Turkey’s historic city of Antakya.