Miracle rescue: Triple joy for Turkish family

ERCIS/TURKEY:

Rescuers plucked a two-week-old baby girl, her mother and grandmother from the rubble of Turkey’s devastating earthquake on Tuesday, sparking scenes of joy that electrified search efforts. Crowds cheered and applauded as 73-year-old Gulzade Karaduman was carried into an ambulance, hours after her grand-daughter Azra and then her daughter Seniha Karaduman were pulled free from the wreckage of the family home in Ercis.

As the death toll reached 432 and the Red Crescent warned that hundreds or even thousands of people remained buried under the debris from Sunday’s quake, the triple rescue provided vital relief joy amid the otherwise grim task. “It is priceless to find someone alive and all my exhaustion is over,” said Oytun Gulpinar, the leader of a team of rescuers.

Azra was brought out by Kadir Direk, who managed to squeeze through the debris and then scoop her off the lap of her mother. “I was the happiest person in the world when I held her,” said the 35-year-old. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2011.