Disasters & Accidents

3-year-old girl pulled from collapsed building in Izmir 65 hours after quake

Izmir, Turkey, Nov 2 (efe-epa).- A search and rescue team in the Turkish city of Izmir on Monday pulled a three-year-old girl from the rubble of a building that collapsed during the powerful Aegean earthquake three days ago.

The 6.6 magnitude quake killed at least 83 people and injured more than 900 when it struck off the north of the Greek island of Samos on Friday. It caused several buildings in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir, where the majority of the casualties were reported, to collapse.

The girl, named locally as Elif Perinçek, was found alive in the rubble of the collapsed building 65 hours after the quake hit. A teenage boy, Idil Sirin, was also pulled from the wreckage of a building at midnight on Sunday.

Turkish emergency responders had saved at least 104 people as of Saturday. Search and rescue operations are still underway at six collapsed buildings.

Elif was trapped under the rubble of a building in the Bayrakli neighborhood along with her mother and three siblings.

Her mother, Seher Perinçek, and her two sisters were rescued on Saturday. Her brother did not survive the earthquake.

One of the firefighters taking part in the operation, Ahmet Yavuz, told CNNTürk that Elif was conscious and had her eyes open when rescuers found her.

Rescuers believe another six people could be trapped in the collapsed building, he added.

The epicenter of Friday’s earthquake was 60 kilometers from Izmir in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek island of Samos, where two people lost their lives, while one woman in a town on Turkey’s coast drowned in the tsunami triggered by the earthquake. EFE-EPA

lvm-DT-iut/jt

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