The man was not able to say a word, but his tears expressed his loss.
Hatay, Turkey:
As hope for survivors in Turkey faded on Saturday, six days after a devastating earthquake that has claimed the lives of over 25,000 people, a particularly heart-wrenching sight chalked out the mood.
His words may be unintelligible for many but the grief only too stark. As 17 bodies were pulled out one by one from a devastated building in Turkey’s Hatay, he stood inconsolable before the wreckage.
Rescuers said the man captured on video had lost all seven family members. With tears streaming down his face, he showed a WhatsApp profile picture of one of the family members who died in the disaster.
The tragedy, described as the worst the region has faced in over a century, has left a trail of unspeakable pain and destruction in its wake.
Relief efforts are ongoing as tens of thousands of workers from various nations race to the affected areas including those part of India’s “Operation Dost”.
In Kahramanmaras, Turkey, a father sat alone on a pile of bricks in the cold, holding the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, the only visible part of her body, which was crushed under the weight of the fallen concrete.
The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8 and accompanied by several aftershocks, decimated neighbourhoods in both Turkey and Syria, leaving millions in desperate need of aid.
Teams from the Indian Army and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed to the affected areas.
In one remarkable rescue operation, NDRF personnel were able to extract an 8-year-old girl from a collapsed structure, working alongside Turkish army personnel.
The same unit also rescued a 6-year-old girl from the same area just the day before.