2 men rescued from rubble 261 hours after quakes hit Türkiye

HATAY, Türkiye

Two men aged 26 and 34 were rescued from the rubble in Türkiye’s Hatay province Thursday night, 261 hours or 10 days after two major earthquakes struck southern provinces in the country.

Search and rescue teams found Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, and Mustafa Avci, 34, alive under the rubble in Antakya district.

They were then taken to a hospital.

At least 38,044 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said early Friday.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.