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Two massive quakes that struck southern Turkiye on Feb 6 have claimed over 42,000 lives, acording to Turkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.
On Feb 20, two new earthquakes measuring 6.4- and 5.8-magnitude, respectively, jolted the southern Hatay province near the Syrian border, killing at least six people and wounding 294 others.
Members of China's official rescue team in Turkyie, working alongside local rescuers, pulled a woman out of a crumbled building in Antakya at 3:40 pm on Friday, increasing the number of survivors they have helped save to four, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
The woman was found by local rescuers while they were clearing the ruins of a flattened building with an excavator, the ministry said in a media briefing. At the request of local rescuers, Chinese rescuers reached the site and used a snake-eye life-detector to locate her. They then verbally confirmed the woman was still alive beneath the ruins, it said.
The ministry said the woman was freed from the wreckage following the joint effort of Chinese and local rescuers that lasted three hours.
Previously, the Chinese team had also helped save three women, one of whom was pregnant.
Rescues of families, elderly people, and children have inspired hope after Monday’s two devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria.
Aside from the official 82-member Chinese team, China has also sent 15 civilian rescue teams with 288 rescuers to join the rescue efforts in Turkiye, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Chinese rescuers are still racing against the clock to rescue survivors from the wreckage of buildings devastated after a massive earthquake in Turkiye, despite the narrowing window of possibility to find survivors.
Aside from an 82-member Chinese official team, 15 civilian rescue teams with 288 rescuers have joined efforts in the disaster-hit nation, according to China's Ministry of Emergency Management.
A magnitude-7.8 temblor struck Turkiye and Syria at 4:17 am local time on Monday, and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, many of them powerful. The death toll from the jolts topped 22, 000 by Friday.
On Friday, following instructions from the local emergency management authority, members of the Zhejiang Rescue Team of Ramunion headed from Iskenderun, a port city in southern Hatay province where they saved a family of five on Thursday from a heavily damaged building, to Antakya, also in the province.
The team first surveyed the conditions on arrival in the city early on Friday, said He Jun, head of the rescue team.
They soon were told that two people were buried beneath the rubble of one building. On hearing that, the team started to use their devices to detect signs of life, he said.
According to the team, to date, it has helped pull eight people from the building's debris, with seven of them surviving the ordeal, after arriving on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Chinese official rescue team helped local rescuers free three women, one of whom is pregnant, from the wreckage in Antakya, after working for 30 hours straight.
The third woman the team helped save was pulled out from under a flattened seven-story building at 8 pm local time, 80 hours after the magnitude-7.8 earthquake happened.
The first 72 hours after such a disaster are crucial for rescue operations — often referred to as a "Golden Window" for finding survivors.
The three women survived after the Golden Window passed because they had strong resilience and endurance and there was enough physical space around them, said Zhao Yang, deputy head of the Chinese official rescue team.
He also highlighted the shouting of rescuers as a factor that encouraged them to stay strong.
Cui Yazhou from the Amity Foundation — an NGO based in Jiangsu province — arrived in Turkiye early on Thursday with another team member. He reached Malatya, a large city in the Eastern Anatolia region, via a flight chartered by the Turkish government.
One of the major tasks for the duo is to learn about local people's needs and then make efforts to respond. Cui found in his field investigation in Malatya that there remain great shortages of daily necessities.
"The devastation is quite heavy. Many buildings crumbled completely," he said, adding that many buildings, though still standing, are leaning precariously or have cracked foundations.
In one location, he found a coffee shop overwhelmed with almost 200 people. "Most people can only lean on tables to rest," he said, adding that many more tents and heating units are needed.
Cui said he saw shoes, clothing and other necessities distributed to people in need. But there remain serious shortages, considering that it will still take a long time to resettle people who lost their homes, and they will have long-term needs for necessities.
Chinese civil society has been responding actively to an appeal from the embassy of Syria in China to offer donations to help people in difficulty in the Middle Eastern country.
The Syrian government extends its sincere gratitude and appreciation to all countries, organizations and individuals that offer support to the Syrian people when they are in difficulties, an online statement on the website said in Chinese, which includes a bank account to accept donations.
Many netizens have reposted their bank account on Sina Weibo. Some of them also include screenshots that show they have donated.
"I have donated. It's my small contribution. I hope the Syrian people are safe and sound," one netizen said.
"I donated 200 yuan ($29)," said another netizen. "I hope they can conquer difficulties from the earthquake and rebuild their homes as soon as possible."
The first consignment of humanitarian aid sent by the Red Cross Society of China to earthquake-stricken regions in Syria arrived in its capital, Damascus, early on Friday morning.
The consignment comprises 5,000 portions of medical supplies and equipment, including medications, bandages and splints.
China's Red Cross is planning to send more materials and equipment in the near future.
ANKARA/DAMASCUS -- The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria has surpassed 21,000, according to latest data released by authorities and rescuers.
The death toll from the earthquakes climbed to 17,674 in Turkiye, with 72,879 injuries, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said Thursday.
In Syria, 1,678 people were killed in government-held areas, and the death toll in the opposition-held region stood at 2,190, according to media reports.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in Kahramanmaras Province.
International search and rescue teams, including an 82-member Chinese rescue team that arrived in Turkiye on Wednesday, rushed to the quake-impacted zone to assist in rescue efforts.
China's rescue team dispatched to Turkiye has helped pull three survivors out of the rubbles as of 8 pm Thursday local time after working constantly for over 30 hours, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
The team, together with local rescuers, dragged a pregnant woman out of ruin at around 1:30 am local time in Antakya city, it said in a press release.
In the afternoon, they found another female survivor trapped in a nearby collapsed building, it added. The woman was rescued at 4 pm.
The third survivor, also a female, was pulled out at around 8 pm, after a two-hour joint operation of Chinese and local rescuers.
The Chinese team has been working constantly for over 30 hours when the third survivor was saved, the ministry said.
The chartered flight carrying the team arrived at Adana airport on Wednesday and immediately made the five-hour trip to Antakya.
A Chinese-made metro train running on a newly opened line between Istanbul International Airport and the city's downtown area has remained in service after a devastating earthquake in Turkiye and Syria on Monday, according to the train's manufacturer.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras on Monday, followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake later that day in Kahramanmaras province.
The death toll in Turkiye and Syria has risen to 15,383, according to data released by authorities and rescuers as of Thursday.
Employees from CRRC-MNG Rail System Vehicles Industry and Trade, a joint venture established by CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive with local partners in Turkiye, have donated money to help the earthquake rescue, according to CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive.
"Our company is about 700 kilometers from the epicenter, so I felt the quake weakly," said Guo Xile, who works at the company, adding that the company has set up an emergency plan for the earthquake.
The 34-km Istanbul New Airport Line opened on Jan 22, reducing travel time between the new airport and the downtown area to about half an hour.
Haluk Oguz, who studied in China for eight years and is an employee of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive's subsidiary in Turkiye, said he was very grateful for the guidance and support from his Chinese colleagues.
KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkiye — Search and rescue dogs have been working around the clock amid the rubble of collapsed buildings searching for trapped survivors, after earthquakes hit southeastern Turkiye and Syria.
In the heavily damaged city center of Kahramanmaras, the capital of the Turkish southern province of Kahramanmaras, sniffer dogs were leading from site to site searching for possible survivors despite the winter cold.
Outfitted with a small GPS-enabled harness and driven by its sense of smell, a German shepherd, a proud member of a rescue team from the capital Ankara, was sniffing a pile of collapsed rubble to find buried survivors.
These dogs are considered ideal for rescue work because they can smell humans trapped underneath concrete and metal, and who are generally too weak to make their presence noticed.
Yunus Goren, the German shepherd's handler, said his dog was trained for a long time to sniff the smell of humans.
"Nothing can match the canine skills to find people over a wide area in a limited amount of time," he said.
Normally a trained dog has to take a rest after several hours of work, but when the situation is too critical, the teams have to keep going on.
Goren said it is critical to find the trapped within the first 72 hours after an earthquake because the survival rate without food or water drops sharply after that.
There is also an increased risk of hypothermia for those trapped, as a result of extremely low temperatures in the quake-hit area.
Alper Ozgun, a veterinarian from Ankara, said dogs display not only a natural ability to find people but also to help and protect them.
For the latest rescue mission, Turkish social media users have hailed the sniffer dogs as "nameless heroes".
Foreign search and rescue teams have also sent sniffer dogs to help in the relief effort in Turkiye.
On Tuesday a search dog with a rescue team from Azerbaijan detected a girl named Zeynep trapped under rubble, and she was saved, local TV reported.
Xinhua
ANKARA - Rescue teams continued to spare no effort to search for more survivors trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings on Thursday, though hopes faded quickly on the 4th day after two massive earthquakes jolted Turkiye.
The death toll from the devastating earthquakes climbed to 17,134 in Turkiye, with 71,806 injuries as of Thursday, according to Turkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
The number of casualties is expected to increase further once the search efforts are over across a wide area of 10 provinces. Experts warned that the chances of saving lives have dropped sharply after 72 hours of the quakes that hit the country on Monday.
Still, the miracles of pulling out more survivors from under the rubble of collapsed buildings over 80 hours after the quakes were encouraging.
The state broadcaster TRT showed Turkish rescue teams pulling out a 60-year-old woman named Meral Nakir from the wrecks of a flattened apartment in Malatya on Thursday.
The injured woman was pulled from the rubble of a six-story building with the help of a trained dog "Kopuk." The Golden Retriever rescue dog had served in the same site for two days and saved six people.
In Antakya, Hatay, Chinese and Turkish rescuers successfully saved three women from the rubble of collapsed buildings on Thursday through their joint operations, during which two bodies of victims were also recovered.
The Turkish parliament approved the implementation of a three-month state of emergency on Thursday as called by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the state will use this authority to prevent malign acts of some people, such as looting, in the quake-hit regions.
Speaking in southern Gaziantep, one of the quake-affected provinces, the president said containers were being provided for temporary accommodation for those who lost homes due to the quakes, while pledging to build three- or four-story buildings in one year. He also promised to allocate 10,000 Turkish liras (530 U.S. dollars) each to the quake victims.
With an estimated 13.5 million people in the country affected by the massive quakes, Erdogan acknowledged there were shortcomings in the immediate response on the first day of the disaster.
A number of people have been left homeless in disaster areas. A call center was established for children whose families and relatives could not be reached in these areas. Hundreds of people from the quake-hit areas were dispatched to hospitals in other provinces.
As many volunteers flocked to the quake-hit zones to help the victims, roads leading to the affected areas were clogged with vehicles carrying supplies or relief aid.
International search and rescue teams, including an 82-member Chinese rescue team and several civilian teams, have arrived in Turkiye to assist in the rescue efforts.
While the official China Search and Rescue Team was carrying out rescue operations in the southern province of Hatay, members of the Blue Sky Rescue Team, a Chinese civil rescue squad, rushed to help save trapped people in the Malatya province right after their arrival in Turkiye early Thursday.
Some 6,479 personnel from 56 countries have arrived in Turkiye to support the search and rescue efforts or provide humanitarian and medical aid, while rescue teams from 19 more countries will be in the country in 24 hours, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday.
Turkiye was rocked by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake early Monday, which was followed hours later by a second magnitude 7.6 quake, in the worst natural disaster ever seen in the country in the past decades.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and a Shenzhen volunteers association have sent search and rescue teams to Turkiye, which suffered a magnitude 7.8 quake along with Syria on Monday.
The earthquake is Turkiye's deadliest since 1999. As of Thursday, the two countries had recorded a death toll of over 15,000.
On Thursday afternoon, the 59-member rescue team dispatched by the Hong Kong government arrived in Istanbul and will soon go to the epicenter Adana.
Led by Yiu Men-yeung, deputy chief fire officer of the Fire Services Department, the team has 49 members from the FSD's urban search and rescue team, including firemen, ambulancemen and fire services workshops personnel, as well as officers from the security bureau, the immigration department and the department of health.
The team is taking two search dogs and approximately 8 metric tons of equipment, which includes life detectors and masonry cutting machines.
HKSAR Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, who is currently visiting the United Arab Emirates, thanked the rescue team for its professionalism and efforts to save lives.
"The HKSAR government will fully support the team and ensure they complete the mission smoothly," Lee wrote on his social media account.
According to Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-ki, who saw the team off at the airport, the HKSAR government joined the rescue operation at the request of the Turkish government. So far the SAR government has received no reports of Hong Kong residents suffering from the disaster.
Karen Poon, acting head of International and Relief Service of the Hong Kong Red Cross, told a local radio program that after the major quake, the disaster area suffered more than 300 aftershocks. Rescue work was delayed by cold weather and snowstorms and residents are short of first aid and cold weather supplies. Major roads were also blocked by debris, making it difficult to deliver supplies.
She also mentioned the lack of large rescue machinery in earthquake-hit Syria, where 300,000 refugees are living in makeshift camps.
The Hong Kong branch is ready to send members to assist in the mission and is in discussions with the International Red Cross, she said.
Separately on Wednesday and Thursday, the Shenzhen Rescue Volunteers Federation sent two rescue teams to Turkiye.
The six-member team includes five members with international rescue experience, and one Turkish volunteer who will be responsible for translation and coordination throughout the process.
The following 17-member team brought 1.7 tons of heavy equipment. The teams will carry out at least one week of post-earthquake search and rescue work.
The Shenzhen Rescue Volunteers Federation is a member of the Greater Bay Area Security Emergency Industry Alliance. Yin Lefang, the head of the alliance told China Daily that the alliance will continue to deliver supplies including life detection and water purification equipment. She said many non-governmental Chinese rescue organizations promptly responded to the disaster, reflecting China's development in emergency aid.
The two devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria on Monday damaged important cultural sites.
Video by Brian Chang.
There is widespread anger in Turkiye over buildings' construction quality. According to a BBC report, poor enforcement of construction regulations contributed to collapse of buildings in the earthquakes.
Video by HanJing.
UNITED NATIONS -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday announced that the world body will launch a flash appeal for donor support for those affected by the earthquake in Syria next week.
"The earthquake that struck Turkiye and Syria is one of the biggest natural disasters in our times," Guterres told reporters, warning that "we haven't yet seen the full extent of the damage and of the humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes."
He pointed out that the earthquake struck as the humanitarian crisis in northwest Syria was already worsening, with needs at their highest level since the conflict began.
Guterres said that the first UN convoy, which included six trucks carrying shelter and other desperately needed relief supplies, crossed into northern Syria Thursday through the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border with Turkiye.
"More help is on the way, but much more, much more is needed," he said, adding that the United Nations has done its best to race to respond and are committed to doing much more.
The UN's Central Emergency Response Fund has released 25 million U.S. dollars to jumpstart the response.
"By early next week, we will launch a flash appeal for donor support for those affected by the earthquake in Syria," Guterres said, adding that the United Nations is also ready to support the Turkish government's response "in any way we can."
Guterres said he has asked UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths to travel to areas affected by the earthquake this weekend.
Griffiths, already in Turkiye, will also visit Aleppo and Damascus in Syria to assess needs and see how the United Nations can step up support.
In addition to more resources, Guterres stressed the need "to explore all possible avenues to get aid and personnel into all affected areas."
"This is the moment of unity, not to politicize or to divide, but it is obvious that we need massive support," he told reporters. "I would be very happy if in relation to the UN, there will be the possibility to do it also in as many crossings as possible."
"This is a moment in which everybody must make very clear that no sanctions of any kind interfere with relief to the population of Syria in the present moment," he said.
Devastating earthquakes struck Turkiye and Syria on Monday, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead in the two countries so far, according to latest data.
Quake: Rescue teams race against time to find survivors
Chinese rescue teams helped save at least six people, including a pregnant woman and three children, in two separate operations in earthquake-devastated Turkiye on Thursday.
The Zhejiang Rescue Team of Ramunion said that its members worked with Turkish soldiers and local rescuers to free five survivors, including three children, from a heavily damaged building at around 1:30 pm local time in Iskenderun, a port city in southern Hatay province.
In Antakya in the country's south, the Chinese official rescue team, together with local rescuers, carried a pregnant woman out of the ruins of a building at around 1:30 am, according to China's Ministry of Emergency Management.
The 82-member Chinese team arrived at Adana airport on Wednesday and immediately made the five-hour trip to Antakya.
The death toll from massive earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks that struck Turkiye and neighboring Syria on Monday passed 17,000 on Thursday.
After having talks with local emergency management authorities, the Chinese official rescue team was assigned two search areas in Antakya, the ministry said.
The team's operation to rescue the pregnant woman was carried out at the request of local rescuers. "The conditions at the site are very complicated. They (Turkish rescue authorities) hoped the team with certification from the United Nations for heavy urban rescues could offer some support," the ministry said.
To save the woman, rescuers and technical experts, led by Zhao Yang, deputy head of the Chinese rescue team, went into the ruins to survey the conditions before working out a rescue plan.
Chinese rescuers and experts participated in the entire rescue, which was supported by equipment brought to Turkiye by the Chinese team, the ministry said.
Seven rescuers from the Zhejiang Rescue Team of Ramunion, an NGO from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, arrived in Turkiye at 1:30 pm on Wednesday.
They immediately headed to Iskenderun after teaming up with a nine-member local logistics support team. The Ramunion workers threw themselves into the rescue operation despite temperatures dropping to -8 C, according to the NGO.
Dispatched by the local emergency management authority, the team reached a crumbled six-story building at 7:47 pm to search for a 67-year-old man.
However, they failed to detect any sign of life after searching for two hours with equipment that included an infrared thermal imaging device and a radar life detector.
He Jun, head of the team, said that together with local rescuers, they pulled two people who showed no vital signs, including a child, out of the rubble at around 9 am on Thursday at another location.
"The casualties are heavy here. Look at the ruins. Buildings have collapsed badly," he said, before rushing to another place on the instruction of the local emergency authority.
Cui Yazhou from the Amity Foundation, an NGO based in Jiangsu province, said he arrived in Istanbul with another team member at around 2 am on Thursday. More than 120 rescue workers from Blue Sky Rescue team, a nonprofit organization, arrived with them.
Cui said airport personnel greeted them on arrival and guided them to a flight chartered by the Turkish government to take them to quake-hit regions. He said some Turkish passengers in the airport greeted them with applause.
The team was also given priority baggage check-in when they departed from Wuhan, Hubei province. They also received blessings and support from airline stewardess as well as Chinese and foreign passengers on the flight to Turkiye.
"This makes us feel that a humanitarian spirit exists in the blood of all people, no matter which country they are from or what religion they believe," he said.
The Ministry of Commerce is preparing disaster relief materials urgently needed in Turkiye and Syria and arranging transportation, said Shu Jueting, a ministry spokeswoman, at a news conference on Thursday. "We will strive to transport the materials to the affected areas as soon as possible."
China has announced it will provide 40 million yuan ($5.9 million) in emergency aid to Turkiye and 30 million yuan to Syria.
Shu said the ministry is also accelerating the implementation of an ongoing food aid program to Syria. About 220 metric tons of wheat has been sent to the country and more than 3,000 tons of wheat and rice will be shipped very soon, she said.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning said rescue specialists from the Red Cross Society of China left Beijing for Syria on Thursday morning. The team carried 5,000 sets of medical supplies with them.
Several rescue teams across China rushed to Turkiye to help with rescue efforts following devastating earthquakes, including the Blue Sky Rescue (BSR) team, a professional non-profit search-and-rescue organization.
Chongqing Blue Sky Rescue Team arrived in the southern Turkish city of Malatya. The team officially launched rescue work Thursday, finding one victim and two survivors with the rescue work underway by press time.
The first batch of the BSR team arrived in Turkiye on February 9, including nine earthquake rescue professionals selected by Southwest China's Chongqing BSR team, then quickly rushed to the earthquake-stricken areas for the rescue.
"This rescue work will demonstrate our professional rescue abilities and Chinese civilian rescue forces to promote international humanitarianism." Luo Mingwen, leader of the Chongqing Blue Sky Rescue Team, said and added, "I believe we can complete this mission."
Assembled in Wanzhou district, Northeast Chongqing, this nine-member team left for Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to join other members of the BSR team, carrying rescue equipment such as thermal imaging equipment, drones, earthquake-breaking systems, radar life detectors, satellite ground stations, and satellite phones.
These professionals have participated in many earthquake rescue efforts with rich rescue experience.
At the same time, all sectors of society lend a helping hand. Aykut Yazirli is a Turkish businessman who has lived in Chongqing for almost 11 years.
"This is the first time in my life that I heard of such a big earthquake in Turkiye," he said. "We have many friends here in China, and they all help to look for what victims need for now."
Yazirli pointed out that the problem lies in the freezing winter temperature, which complicates rescue efforts. "We're especially looking for living conditions for the victims, such as food, clothes, blankets, electronic products," he said.
Xinhua reported that a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in Kahramanmaras Province. On Wednesday, an 82-member Chinese rescue team arrived at Adana Airport in Turkiye at 4:30 am local time (0130 GMT) after flying over 8,000 km on a chartered Air China plane.
According to the Foreign Ministry, in the early hours today local time, they rescued a pregnant woman trapped under the debris together with Turkish rescuers. Last night, the Hong Kong SAR government also sent a 59-member search and rescue team to Turkiye to assist in local rescue efforts. This morning, a plane took off from Beijing and headed to Syria, carrying the first batch of medical supplies enough to cover the needs of 5,000 people and a rescue team from the Red Cross Society of China. Apart from the cash assistance and material aid that have been announced, the Chinese side is also speeding up the delivery of ongoing food aid programs for Syria, including 220 tons of wheat already on its way and more than 3,000 tons of rice and wheat to be shipped in two batches shortly.
ISTANBUL/HATAY, Turkiye - The death toll from Monday's devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria has surpassed 17,000, according to latest data.
The death toll in Turkiye from the earthquakes has reached 14,014 with 63,794 injured, media reported on Thursday, citing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In Syria, at least 1,581 were killed in government-held areas, and the death toll in the opposition-held region is 1,975, according to media reports.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 am local time (0117 GMT), followed by a magnitude 6.4 quake a few minutes later in the country's southern province of Gaziantep and a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 pm local time (1024 GMT) in Kahramanmaras Province.
The tremors with 7.7 and 7.6 magnitudes devastated almost 10 provinces in the country.
Rescue teams have been racing against time to save those trapped under the rubble in the freezing weather. Citizens who have been trying to hear good news about their loved ones were waiting for signs of hope.
In quake-hit Hatay Province, the Chinese rescue team helped pull out a pregnant woman buried under the rubble of a collapsed building to safety in the wee hours of Thursday.
The Chinese team also gave professional advice and provided technical equipment during the rescue operation, said Zhao Yang, deputy leader of the Chinese rescue team.
The Turkish side has expressed gratitude for China's assistance and voiced its support for the Chinese team's rescue work.
A rescue team from a Chinese company has helped with earthquake relief work in Turkiye.
The Turkish branch of Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology was one of the first to send workers and equipment to the worst-hit province, Hatay, on Tuesday, after two 7.8 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkiye on Monday.
The team has saved about 20 trapped people as of 8 pm on Wednesday.
Huang Yunbing, an engineer at the company, and he and his colleagues trudged 16 hours to reach the disaster area. What he saw was complete devastation and ruins, he said, adding that some local rescuers were calling loudly into wreckage, hoping to receive a response.
More than 25 Zoomlion excavators are functioning in different regions. Because of power cuts, some professional tools cannot be used. Rescuers had to use hammers, awls and shovels. It took three hours for them to save the first trapped person.
Huang said more people and equipment are expected to arrive.
China Energy Engineering Group Co Ltd said the Zetes power plant in Turkiye remains operational and is currently under stable operation despite the earthquakes in the country.
The power plant continues to generate power, offering a secured guarantee to the aid work in the quake-stricken area, it said.
Chinese engineers immediately went back to work to check the power plant's safety to ensure critical equipment and generator operation remain unaffected, shortly after the initial wave of the earthquake began to cease.
The company has also been carrying out basic knowledge of earthquake prevention among local employees and purchasing post-earthquake supplies for donations and condolences.
Energy China's workers' union in Beijing has reached out to the project site over the delivery of charity and aid goods for local employees and residents based on the local situation.
The Hunutlu thermal power plant, the largest China-backed coal-fired power plant in Turkiye operated by State Power Investment Corporation, is safe despite the earthquakes in the country, said the company.
Although there was a slight damage to a small amount of auxiliary equipment, the two units of the Hunutlu thermal power plant, the country's first thermal power plant without any flue-gas stack, have been generating electricity at full power, said the company.
It has ensured sufficient power supply for the anti-quake relief work in the country, as the earthquakes have resulted in local power plant outage and power shortage, it said.
Construction of the Hunutlu thermal power plant began on Sept 22, 2019, in Turkiye's southern province of Adana. It is China's biggest project with direct investment in Turkey, with a total investment of $1.7 billion.
