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Rescue teams in Izmir rescue the girl alive from the rubble, as the death toll in the earthquake exceeded 100.
A four-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building 91 hours after a powerful earthquake struck western Turkey, when the death toll rose to 100 on Tuesday, the local mayor said.
“We have witnessed a miracle at the 91st hour,” Izmir Mayor Tunc Soyer tweeted. “The rescue teams took four-year-old Ayda alive. Along with the great pain we have experienced, we also have this joy. “
The girl was seen being taken to an ambulance, wrapped in a thermal blanket, amid applause and chants of “God is great!” of lifeguards and spectators.
Rescuer Nusret Aksoy told reporters that he heard a boy scream before placing the girl next to a dishwasher. He said Ayda waved at him, told him his name and said he was fine.
Their rescue came a day after a three-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl were also taken alive from collapsed buildings in Izmir.
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the Aegean Sea last week killed 102 people and injured 994 people, said the country’s disaster authority known by its Turkish acronym AFAD.
He added that rescue teams in Izmir province continued to search five buildings for an unknown number of missing persons.
More than 3,500 tents and 13,000 beds are being used for temporary shelters in Turkey, where relief efforts have attracted nearly 8,000 people and 25 rescue dogs, the agency said.
The worst hit Turkish city was Bayrakli in Izmir, where there was a mixture of celebration and sadness on Monday after a three-year-old girl named Elif Perincek and a 14-year-old girl named Idil Sirin were rescued from the rubble.
But both lost a brother each to the disaster that hit the Aegean Sea on Friday afternoon.
Two teenagers returning home from school were also killed in neighboring Greece.
Turkey has reported more than 1,464 aftershocks after the earthquake, including 44 that exceeded four in magnitude.
After dozens of buildings were damaged and the risk of repeated tremors, thousands of residents were forced to spend the fourth night in tents in Izmir.
Rescue teams pull 4-year-old Ayda Gezgin out of a collapsed building as operations are carried out at the site after an earthquake struck the Aegean Sea. [Reuters]
The earthquake is the deadliest in Turkey this year after another disaster struck the eastern provinces of Elazig and Malatya in January, killing more than 40 people.
Turkey is riddled with faults and prone to earthquakes. More than 500 people were killed in a 2011 earthquake in the eastern city of Van, while another in January this year killed 41 people in the eastern province of Elazig.
In 1999, two strong earthquakes killed 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey.
Turkey has a mix of older buildings and many structures are built cheaply or illegally, which can cause serious damage and death when earthquakes strike.
Regulations to strengthen or demolish buildings have been tightened and urban renewal is underway in Turkish cities, but it is not happening fast enough.
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