DUSHANBE, February 13. /TASS/. Rescuers from Tajikistan have pulled a three-year-old boy alive from under the rubble in the Turkish town of Kahramanmaras, the toddler had spent 158 hours there, the press service of the Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan reported on Monday.
"After hours of search and rescue mission in the Onikisubat area of Kahramanmaras city using special equipment to find people under the rubble, rescuers of the Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense managed to find and save a toddler, 3, named Yavuz. He was under the rubble for 158 hours," the press service said.
According to the press service, having found him, "rescuers turned off the equipment, in order not to scare the child more, and crawled to him."
On February 11, rescuers from the Tajik Committee for Emergency Situations and Civil Defense pulled a father and his six-month-old baby alive from under the rubble. They had been there for six days waiting for help. The press service also noted that while in Turkey, Tajik rescuers pulled 78 bodies from the rubble.
Tajikistan sent a group of 50 rescuers and doctors, as well as 2.5 tons of special equipment to Turkey to help deal with the aftermath of the February 9 earthquake. Besides, Dushanbe has sent 100 tons of humanitarian aid, which includes basic necessities and food.
The earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 hit the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras on February 6, nine hours apart. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in ten provinces as well as in neighboring countries, of which Syria was the most affected. The death toll in Turkey exceeded 29,000 people.