Turkey-Syria earthquake: Boy, nine, pulled out alive after five days underground in arms of his mother
In the wasteland that scars the centre of Kahramanmaras in Turkey, we watched a pair of rescuers perched in a digger’s scoop as they investigated a great pile of concrete.
Their mobile bucket took them up into the sky as they probed a toppled building. No one had checked this spot before.
It is not surprising however.
In Kahramanmaras, more than 200 buildings have been destroyed by the earthquakes and tremors.
“Is anyone in there? If you can hear me tap on the wall,” said a rescuer.
“No, no one.”
Local officials face a difficult dilemma. Tens of thousands have been displaced by the disaster with many now sleeping in plastic tents or self-constructed dwellings on the roadside.
Security ‘rapidly deteriorating’ in Turkey as death tolls passes 28,000 – earthquake latest
The climate is harsh, particularly at night, and the authorities need to clear the rubble and begin the process of rebuilding.
But there is a conflicting demand – a moral obligation to search for survivors – and this is a necessarily skilled and time-consuming process.
At what used to be the Elbrar apartment block, we met a multi-national rescue team trying to release a woman called Leyla from deep beneath the pile.
And they’d been working all night to release her.
A multi-national rescue team was involved in the search for Leyla. Pic: AP
We spoke to an Italian rescuer called Gianluca Pesce, an engineer who was volunteering on the site.
“We’ve opened one corridor inside, a corridor (that is) like 50cm square, very small, just enough for one person. I went inside, through the tunnel for about seven metres. We start to call to her, she answered but her voice is weak.”
The rescuers, led by members of Israel’s national search and rescue unit, had spent 24 hours trying to reach her from the side and the top of the building. They had already managed to free the woman’s husband and daughter but Leyla was in a particularly difficult position.
“It’s going to take a long time,” said Mr Pesce.
Sometimes, a rescue is conducted in a matter of few minutes.
While we filmed at the Elbrar building, word spread about another emergency. Just 100 metres from where we were standing, a survivor had been located beneath the remains of an 11-storey block.
More than 200 buildings have been destroyed in Kahramanmaras
An excavator driver called Selmir Gizet told us he had been clearing the pile when he heard a strange sound from the rubble. He decided to raise the alarm.
Shortly afterwards, a man called Gohkan was dragged out of a hole and placed on a stretcher.
Gohkan was pulled out of a hole by rescuers
His feet were blistered and frost-bitten and his face was lacerated – we saw a large indentation on his forehead.
But he was alive, managing to survive more than four days underground.
“God is great” shouted the crowd, “God is great”.
With tears flowing down his cheeks, one rescuer told us: “I had a dream that I would find a man. We worked together as a team and put all efforts into rescuing him. God save him, I hope he survives.”
Back at the Elbrar block, the search and rescuers were looking for Leyla but they told us there had been an important development.
Read more:
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The search for survivors in the rubble goes on
Leyla’s voice may have belonged to her son – the pair were lying together in the boy’s room when the earthquake struck.
“We were looking for a woman, we know there are a woman and child inside and when we came closer, it became apparent that we were talking to the child,” said search and rescue paramedic, Jonathan Rousso.
“The team have got to the point where they are on the other side of the wall, but they can’t cut (the wall), and there is a washing machine (in the way). You can’t cut through the washing machine. You have to find a way, so we are digging deeper.”
The operation was dangerous, and with frequent tremors their tunnels were at risk of collapse. We saw team members dash into the remains of a local shop, looking for timber and screws to prop up their underground channels.
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Over the course of an agonising evening, rescue team members managed to reach the boy.
He told them his name was Ridvan, Leyla’s nine-year-old son.
A doctor tried to stabilise him down below but there were serious concerns about his condition. The decision was made to get him out.
Ridvan, Leyla’s nine-year-old son, was saved and taken into an ambulance
On the surface, the volunteers called for quiet, for fear of alarming the boy, and Ridvan was carried on a stretcher through a concrete hole. He was greeted to the sound of whispers from the crowd that had grown to several hundred.
He had spent nearly five days underground, in the arms of his mother. He was cold and badly dehydrated and part of his body had been crushed. The paramedics sped him to hospital.
Ridvan pictured in hospital
Unfortunately, his mother Leyla did not survive, the rescue team unable to rescue her in time.
A national catastrophe and a family’s tragedy in a city marked by sorrow.
A government minister has declined to say if the UK was involved in a Ukrainian drone strike after the Russian ambassador partially blamed Britain for the attack.
More than a hundred drones were used to attack sites inside Russia over the weekend, leading to more than 40 warplanes being destroyed.
Speaking to The World With Yalda Hakim on Sky News following the attack, Russia’s UK ambassador warned it could risk escalating the conflict to “World War III”.
Follow live: Russia hits ‘almost all of Ukraine’ with more than 400 drones and 40 missiles – Zelenskyy
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Russia’s ambassador points finger at UK
Andrei Kelin pointed the finger at the UK because of the nature of the strike.
“[This] kind of attack involves, of course, provision of very high technology, so-called geospaced data, which only can be done by those who have it in possession. And this is London and Washington,” he told Hakim.
“I don’t believe that America [is involved], that has been denied by President Trump, definitely, but it has not been denied by London.
“We perfectly know how much London is involved, how deeply British forces are involved in working together with Ukraine.”
Asked if the UK had provided Ukraine with this technology, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, told Sky News: “I’m not going to speculate on something when I don’t know what the facts were.”
He said that “we as a government, cross-party actually, are standing foursquare alongside Ukraine as they fight – try to defend themselves – against a brutal, unprovoked and illegal attack and invasion”.
Mr Reed added: “We want there to be peace talks. We want this conflict to end. But it’s quite right that we should support Ukraine.”
Environment Secretary Steve Reed. Pic: PA
Challenged if this escalation could risk Britain getting sucked into the conflict with Russia more directly, the cabinet minister responded: “I do know that the people of this country and the government of this country, want to stand alongside Ukraine.
“We need peace to happen in that region, we can’t allow Russia to get away with invading any more countries.”
It comes at a time of escalating tensions in the region, with both Russia and Ukraine upping their attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country’s drone strikes at the weekend “will undoubtedly be in history books”.
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New Ukraine drone attack video analysed
The blow is seen as one of the most daring of the war so far, though the US estimated only around 10 Russian bombers were blown up – and Russia said none were.
Overnight, Russia claimed it downed 174 Ukrainian drones and three cruise missiles across the country.
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Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Russia attacked towns and cities across Ukraine overnight.
Mr Zelenskyy said the assault was formed of more than 400 drones and 40 missiles.
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Russian ambassador interview in full
US President Donald Trump had urged Mr Putin not to retaliate on Thursday. He told reporters: “I don’t like it, I said don’t do it, you shouldn’t do it, you should stop it.”
In response to the allegations of British involvement, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We never comment on operational matters at home or abroad.”
Russia’s UK ambassador has told Sky News that Ukraine’s recent attacks risk escalating the conflict to “World War III” as he partly blamed the UK.
Andrei Kelin warned that Ukraine’s actions “are bringing the conflict to a different level of escalation”, in an interview with Sky News’ Yalda Hakim, and said Kyiv should “not try to engulf World War III”.
“That’s the very worst case scenario that we can imagine,” he said.
More than a hundred Ukrainian drones were deployed inside Russia over the weekend, destroying more than 40 warplanes in an attack Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “will undoubtedly be in history books”.
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New Ukraine drone attack video analysed
Mr Kelin pointed the finger at the UK when he said Ukraine must have had assistance in the attacks.
“[This] kind of attack involves, of course, provision of very high technology, so-called geospaced data, which only can be done by those who have it in possession. And this is London and Washington,” he said.
“I don’t believe that America [is involved], that has been denied by President Trump, definitely, but it has not been denied by London.
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Explosion recorded on Crimea bridge
“We perfectly know how much London is involved, how deeply British forces are involved in working together with Ukraine.”
On Wednesday, Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin told him “very strongly” that Russia “will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields”.
The US president said that he discussed the attack with Mr Putin during a phone call that lasted more than an hour.
“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace,” he wrote.
Mr Kelin repeated this sentiment, telling Sky News: “It is up to the Ministry of Defence to make a right solution, but we have to respond to it.”
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “We never comment on operational matters at home or abroad.”
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