On Sunday, the Greek island of Samos bid farewell to two teenagers who died tragically when they were crushed by a wall during a destructive earthquake which hit the island on Friday.
High school sweethearts, 17-year-old Aris and 15-year-old Claire, were killed while returning home from school.
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook half of Greece and the Aegean coast of Turkey, killing at least 71 people and more than 900 injured.
READ MORE: Strong earthquake in Aegean Sea kills at least 14 people in Turkey And Greece.
Relatives, friends, and teachers gathered at 12pm at the Agios Charalambos church in Vathi, Samos, to say goodbye to Claire.
Attendants wore masks as per the required safety measures, while many of Claire’s classmates and friends were dressed in white.
The funeral of Aris was later at 3pm, with most of the Vathi community attending.
Before the funeral, the parents of the two teenagers spoke on SKAI television.
READ MORE: Greek PM Mitsotakis, Turkish President Erdogan exchange condolences over earthquake deaths.
“Two lives were lost in two seconds. Death was instantaneous,” Aris’ father said, adding that the building which collapsed on his son had been abandoned for decades.
“Aris embraced Claire to protect her but they did not have time to react. Everything happened within five seconds.
Claire’s mum added that she was still in shock from her loss.
“Hug your children, time does not come back. Live every moment. This is our message. Time does not come back. Hug all your children. Love them all,” she said.
READ MORE: Mitsotakis visits earthquake-striken Samos, calls for damage evaluation.
70-year-old pulled out alive in Turkey as earthquake death toll hits 71:
As the funeral of Aris and Claire was underway in Samos, unbelievable scenes were unfolding in western Turkey, where rescue workers extricated a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building 34 hours after the earthquake.
The man was pulled out of the rubble overnight on Sunday and is doing well at a hospital, according to the Turkish Health Minister. The minister tweeted that the survivor, Ahmet Citim, told him, “I never lost hope.”
Sadly as the search and rescue enters its third day, more bodies than survivors appear to be found in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city.
Rescue efforts continue in Turkey. Photo: AP Photo/Darko Bandic. 
Ahmet Citim was rescued from the debris of his collapsed house in Izmir, Turkey. Photo: Turkey Health Ministry via AP.
The earthquake was centered in the Aegean, northeast of the Greek island of Samos. Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) raised the death toll on Sunday in Izmir province to 69. The agency said 949 people were injured in Turkey, with more than 220 still receiving treatment.
The earthquake also killed the two teenagers mentioned on Samos and injured at least 19 other people on the island.
There was some debate over the magnitude of the earthquake. The US Geological Survey rated it 7.0, while the Istanbul’s Kandilli Institute put it at 6.9 and AFAD said it measured 6.6.
