Young Turkish woman rescued by Greek team in Hatay - sent to Syria - EU deploys more aid
Irin's rescue took over 6 hours, with the rescue members holding her hand to reassure her. She was picked up by an ambulance.
Earlier, the EMAK emergency rescue team members on Wednesday focused on trying to pull out another child found in the ruins of a building in Hatay, the southeastern town in Türkiye, following a devastating earthquake on Monday that has claimed over 11,000 dead in the country and nearby Syria.
Rescuers heard the child's voice and found the child trapped under the body of his mother who shows no signs of being alive. Their efforts were temporarily interrupted by a strong aftershock, before resuming their efforts. Its age was not disclosed.
If successful, this will be the fourth child Greek rescuers have pulled out of ruins, along with a 50-year-old man.
Earlier on the same day, the EMAK team pulled out a surviving 15-year-old boy from the rubble. The Greek rescuers also recovered the bodies of two people, a 17-year-old boy and a man in his 40s, while a sibling of one of the children they have rescued died before she could be pulled out too.
Meanwhile, Greece has prepared humanitarian aid to Syria, where the earthquake also claimed thousands of lives. The aid will be provided through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, which was activated after a request by Syria.
More specifically, Greece is sending aid to the quake-striken areas in Syria, which has also been devastated by the earthquake that affected Turkiye, with a Greek mission preparing to depart as soon as possible on Wednesday after Syria activated the relevant request to the European Civil Protection Mechanism.
According to sources from the Climate Change and Civil Protection Ministry - in response to criticism that Greece had sent aid to Turkiye but not to Syria - Greece had already started the preparations for the dispatch of a mission to Syria but could not proceed because it was necessary for a country stricken by a disaster to first activate its request for aid.
As a senior ministry official explained to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the European Civil Protection Mechanism is the channel through which the EU member-states can send humanitarian aid efficiently and in a coordinated manner to afflicted areas.
The humanitarian aid to Syria includes tents, medicines and other goods and supplies for people that are now homeless and need immediate support, according to the request activated by Syria.
Furthermore, Reuters reported on Monday that over, "10 search and rescue teams from the EU have been mobilized in the wake of the major earthquake that has hit Turkey," quoting a spokesperson for the European Commission.
“Urban Search and Rescue teams have been quickly mobilised from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, France, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania to support the first responders on the ground,” the European Commission said in a statement.
Italy, Spain and Slovakia have offered their rescue teams to Turkey as well.
The EU stated it was also ready to support those affected in Syria, but said it had not yet received a request from the country to activate the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which coordinates assistance from EU and other European countries.
Southeast Türkiye and Syria were struck by a powerful earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale on Monday, followed by an aftershock of 7.5. So far, over 11,200 have been confirmed dead in both countries, with the death toll rising continuously and the United Nations expressing fears the death toll will rise to at least 20,000.
