Couple saved more than 12 days after Turkey earthquake

Istanbul: A couple and their son were dragged from under a collapsed apartment building more than 12 days after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of Turkey and Syria, and the child later died in hospital. Turkish state media reported.

A Kyrgyz expat search team rescued Samir Muhammad Akkar, 49, his wife Lagda, 40, and their 12-year-old son while digging through the rubble of state-run Anadolu apartments in the southern Turkish city of Antakya. bottom. the news agency said.

They were removed at around 11:30 am local time, 296 hours after the February 6 earthquake, and immediately taken to an ambulance. Television footage of a doctor fixing an IV in the arm of a man lying on a stretcher.

One of the Kyrgyz rescuers said their team also found the bodies of two children. Anadolu later reported that they were also the children of Samir Muhammad and Ragda Akkar.

During a visit to Antakya, the capital of Hatay province, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the father was conscious and being treated at Mustafa Kemal University Hospital. Anadolu has released a photo of American television personality and former US Senate candidate Mehmet Oz visiting a recovering man.

Anadolu, who reported their conversation, said he explained how Samir Muhammad Akar survived the ordeal by drinking his own urine. He said he responded to his voice for the first few days, but after that he heard nothing.

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Hatay province, where Antakya is located, was one of the hardest-hit areas by the earthquake that killed at least 40,642 people in Turkey and 3,688 in Syria.