Couple rescued from Turkey debris 12 days after earthquake


Twelve days after two massive earthquakes reduced sections of Turkey and Syria to rubble, rescuers pulled a man and woman from the debris alongside their 12-year-old child.

Samir Muhammed Accar, 49, and Ragda Accar, 40, were saved in Antakya some 296 hours after the first quake struck, Turkey’s state-run news agency said.

The child, who was not identified, was rescued from the rubble but later died at a hospital. Two more Accar children were also found dead under the remnants of their apartment building.

Rescue teams search for people as cranes remove debris from destroyed buildings in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. Rescuers pulled several earthquake survivors from the shattered remnants of buildings Friday, including some who lasted more than 100 hours trapped under crushed concrete after the disaster slammed Turkey and Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Rescue teams search for people as cranes remove debris from destroyed buildings in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. Rescuers pulled several earthquake survivors from the shattered remnants of buildings Friday, including some who lasted more than 100 hours trapped under crushed concrete after the disaster slammed Turkey and Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) (Hussein Malla/AP)

A rescue team from Kyrgyzstan found the Accars around 11:30 a.m. local time on Saturday. Turkish TV showed medics giving Samir Muhammed Accar an IV while he lay on a stretcher.

At the hospital, Accar said he’d been drinking his own urine to survive for 12 days under the collapsed building. He said that in the first few days after the earthquake, he could hear his children calling for help. But by day four, he heard them no more.

Rescue workers pull out Samir Muhammed Accar, a Syrian migrant, from a collapsed building in Antakya, Turkey, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. On the 13th day of rescue operations, three people, including a child, were extracted from under an apartment building in Antakya. The survivors, Accar, his wife and their 12-year-old son, were transferred to ambulances after spending 296 hours buried under the Kanatli apartment block in the center of the city, local TV reported. (IHA via AP)

Rescue workers pull out Samir Muhammed Accar, a Syrian migrant, from a collapsed building in Antakya, Turkey, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023. On the 13th day of rescue operations, three people, including a child, were extracted from under an apartment building in Antakya. The survivors, Accar, his wife and their 12-year-old son, were transferred to ambulances after spending 296 hours buried under the Kanatli apartment block in the center of the city, local TV reported. (IHA via AP) (Uncredited/AP)

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the TV personality and former U.S. Senate candidate whose parents emigrated from Turkey, visited the Accars at Mustafa Kemal University Hospital near Antakya.

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Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency has kept a running tally of late-stage rescues, several of which occurred in and around Antakya. The city in southern Turkey was among the hardest hit areas.

Rescue workers continue to clear rubble from collapsed building in Antakya, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. Ever since the powerful 7.8 earthquake that has become Turkey's deadliest disaster in modern history, survivors have been gathering outside destroyed buildings, refusing to leave. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Rescue workers continue to clear rubble from collapsed building in Antakya, Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023. Ever since the powerful 7.8 earthquake that has become Turkey’s deadliest disaster in modern history, survivors have been gathering outside destroyed buildings, refusing to leave. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

In Defne, directly south of Antakya, a man was rescued 278 hours after the quake hit. About 35 hours before the Accars were found, another man, 34-year-old Mustafa Avci, was saved in Antakya.

“I had completely lost all hope. This is a true miracle,” Avci’s father told Reuters. “I thought nobody could be saved alive from there.”

Earlier this week, multiple children were found in the disaster area, having survived more than 170 hours on their own.

More than 43,000 people have died since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake rattled Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6. About nine hours later, a 7.7 magnitude aftershock struck. The vast majority of the victims, more than 40,000, died in Turkey.

Despite the string of late rescues, authorities planned to end search operations on Sunday. However, the operation has reportedly been extended multiple times in the past week as more survivors were found.

With News Wire Services



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