Turkey earthquake: the miraculous moment

by The 1 | October 25, 2011 at 11:50 am

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The miraculous moment came when, for the first time in hours of toil, rescue worker Kadir Direk's call for any survivors was finally answered.

"We were walking over the rubble, calling 'is anybody there?' when we heard a cry 'we are here, save us!'," he said.

What he came across in the ruins of a half-flattened block of flats defied belief. Through a gap in the rubble was three generations of a family - a baby daughter, her mother and grandmother - huddled together.

Through a tiny opening in the wreckage of broken concrete pillars and twisted steel frames, sixteen-day-old Azra was passed out by her mother to Mr Direk, a 35-year-old volunteer who drove 800 miles across the country to join the rescue effort.

Nourished by her mother's milk after the earthquake struck on Sunday afternoon, she was said to be in stable condition. Her aunt and uncle, waiting nearby, gratefully and tearfully clutched her and boarded a flight to a hospital in Ankara.

Ahmed Karaduman, her grandfather, said: "We hugged and we cried together. We had almost given up hope. I thank God that he saves her for us. She is such a lovely sweet child, we would watch her as she slept and marvel at her beauty." Shivering under the pelting rain, Mr Karaduman watched as rescuers continued the operation to free Azra's mother Seniha, 24, and grandmother Gulsaadet, 73.