Feb 11 (BTA/GNA) – A woman was extracted alive on Friday from the ruins of a collapsed building in the southeastern Turkish town of Besni, Adiyaman Province, after an hours-long rescue operation involving Bulgarian and Polish firefighters. The woman was trapped for over four days, after a devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the region in the early hours February 6.
Rescue teams had been trying to reach her since 1 am on the previous night. The woman has managed to survive after spending some 100 hours buried in the debris.
Rescue teams told reporters earlier that the woman’s legs had been freed but her arm was still blocked. She was finally extracted later after an hours-long rescue operation. The operation started the previous night when a living person was detected in the ruins after rescuers registered a heartbeat with the special equipment at their disposal.
The woman used to live on the first floor of the apartment building with her family. The other family members are presumed dead.
Meanwhile, Bulgarian firefighters reported that efforts were also underway to rescue a living person in a collapsed building next door. It is not clear whether the person in distress is a man or a woman. Rescuers heard tapping on a concrete slab.
BTA/GNA