Turkish rescuers pull out 3-year-old alive 4 days after quake

Istanbul: A toddler trapped inside fallen apartment building rubble was pulled out alive 91 hours after the quake, the Associated Press reported.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca posted on social media, identifying the young girl as Ayda Gezgin. The girl is doing well but is kept under observation in the hospital. Gezgin became the 107th person from the natural disaster to have been pulled from a collapsed building alive. Following her rescue two other young girls who were also pulled out alive from a collapsed building in Izmir.

The little girl tried to call out for her mother, but her mother did not survive the earthquake. Her brother and father were not inside the building at the time of the quake.

Nusret Aksoy, a rescuer at the scene, told reporters he was digging through the toppled eight-floor building’s rubble when he heard a child screaming.

“I found her tucked in a tight space next to a dishwasher with Geznig motioning she was okay,” Aksoy said.

Ibrahim Topal, of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), detailed the account of how Geznig was found.

“My colleague and I looked at each other like ‘Did you hear that, too?’ We listened again. There was a very weak voice saying something like ‘I’m here.’ Then we shut everything down, the machines, and started listening again. And there really was a voice.”

The earthquake has resulted in 111 known fatalities and 138 hospitalizations due to injuries caused by the quake.

The U.S. Geological Survey registered the quake’s magnitude at 7.0, though some agencies reported it was less intense.