Greek rescuers freed a 6-year-old girl from the rubble of her home in the city of Iskenderun in Turkey’s Hatay province on Tuesday.
According to Ekathimerini, the Greek team wasn’t able to save the girl’s 7-year-old sister, who was also trapped under the rubble.
Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, hailed the efforts of the Greek rescue team on Twitter.
“Images that fill us with pain are followed by images that fill us with hope. We respect the superhuman efforts of the rescue teams. Greeks and Turks are fighting side by side, together to save lives. We are grateful to them for what they did,” Mitsotakis wrote.
Both girls had been under the rubble since a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and multiple aftershocks struck eastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria on Monday.
Search teams and emergency aid from around the world have arrived in Turkey and Syria as rescuers, working in freezing temperatures, dig through the remains of buildings flattened by the earthquake.
Turkish Vice President, Fuat Oktay, said more than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkey alone, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels.
Greek rescuers also extricated a 50-year-old father, member of a family of four, who was trapped under a staircase.
So far, the death toll from the earthquake has surpassed 6,000 people and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a disaster zone in the ten provinces struck, imposing a three-month state of emergency.
