For 50 hours, German rescue workers worked to dig out a woman they know was lying in the ruins of a building in Kirikhan, Turkey.
Sister Zuebeyde Kahraman emerged unscathed from the earthquake and waited despairingly and helplessly by the side while the work went on.
40-year-old Zeynep Kahraman was trapped for 105 hours. Most of the hours she lay in total darkness.
DESPERATE: Zubeyde Kahraman (right) waited helplessly as the German rescue team worked to get his sister Zeynep out. Photo: Piroschka van de Wouw / Reuters / NTB
– You can imagine what a living hell this is for the woman, who can hear the drills above her head and who has experienced this for 50 hours. We have been trying to get to her for 50 hours, says Benno Riehl to Reuters.
They lay several layers of thick concrete over her.
– It is unknown how injured she is, but she seemed to be able to move her arms and legs. She has been buried here since the earthquake happened, said the doctor, Bastian Herbst, before Zeynep was freed.
SURVIVOR: The rescue workers carry Zeynep into an ambulance in Kirikhan. Photo: Piroschka van de Wouw / Reuters / NTB
He is one of the German rescue workers on the scene.
On Thursday, the team was able to communicate with Zeynep and give her water.
On Friday they came even closer, so that a doctor could both talk to her and touch her, because they finally got her out completely.
GRATEFUL: Zubeyde Kahraman thanks one of the rescue workers who got his sister out. Photo: Piroschka van de Wouw / Reuters / NTB
In total, more than 21,000 people have lost their lives in Turkey and Syria after the earthquake on the night of Monday. Several hundred thousand people have become homeless.
