On Monday, a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and northwest Syria killed over 2,600 people and left countless others injured. Collapsing of several apartment buildings and housing units added to the devastation already prevalent in the war-torn cities of Syria.
The firefighters in a Turkish city managed to free a little boy who had been buried under the wreckage of the catastrophic earthquake.
Also Read: When was Gaziantep castle built? Turkey earthquake damages historical tourist spot
You can hear the firefighters telling the child, “Don’t sleep, talk to us, and I’ll buy you chocolate.” Watch the complete video here:
😢 “don't sleep, talk to us, and I will buy you chocolate”
Turkish rescuer trying to save a kid from the derbies of a bulding#deprem
— ሳዲቅ | Sadik | صادق 🇪🇹🇹🇷 (@sadiktruth) February 6, 2023
The Turkish government fears that the death toll will rise as authorities continue their search for survivors among the wreckage of fallen structures. The nation has now announced seven days of national mourning.
Authorities issued a cautionary message after three more strong tremors were felt by the populace on Monday. As anxious families wait for information regarding their stranded loved ones, the rescue crews are actively hacking away slabs and removing bodies.
The earthquake, centered in Turkey‘s southeastern region of Kahramanmaras, brought residents of Damascus and Beirut fleeing into the streets and was felt as far away as Cairo.
The tremor also brought about a little tsunami that struck Samos and the Seferihisar neighborhood of the province of Izmir, where one elderly woman died in the water. Both Istanbul and Athens, the capital of Greece, experienced earthquakes as well as the whole of western Turkey. Then came hundreds of aftershocks.
Turkey is prone to earthquakes since it is built on top of fault lines. Around 18,000 people were killed in two large earthquakes that struck northwest Turkey in 1999. Greece also experiences regular earthquakes.
In the meantime, Fuat Oktay, the vice president of Turkey, stated in a video speech that such a catastrophe could occur “once in a hundred years.” While rescue workers retrieved the bodies of the dead, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan estimated that the death toll could exceed 3,000.