Turkey Earthquake: A team from National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Friday rescued an 8-year-old child from debris in Gaziantep, Turkey. The operation was undertaken in Nurdagi town of Gaziantep province along with Turkish army personnel, the NDRF spokesperson said.
Sharing the news on Twitter, “Hard work and motivation pays; NDRF team in co-ordination with Turkish Army successfully rescued another live victim (Girl aged 8Yrs) at 15:45 hrs at Loc Bahceli Evler Mahallesi, Nurdagi, Gaziantep, Turkiye.”
“Rescuers have saved two lives and retrieved 13 bodies from the debris till now. The rescue operation of the force is continuing since February 7 in the affected areas of Turkiye,” the spokesperson said.
This is the second such incident in the last 24 hours. Just a day earlier, the NDRF had rescued a six-year-old girl from under the rubble in Gaziantep.
Applauding the rescue operation Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated the team on Twitter and said “Proud of our NDRF. In the rescue operations in Türkiye, Team IND-11 saved the life of a six-year-old girl, Beren, in Gaziantep city. Under the guidance of PM @narendramodi, we are committed to making @NDRFHQ the world’s leading disaster response force. OperationDost.”
What is ‘Operation Dost’?
India launched “Operation Dost” to extend assistance to Turkiye as well as Syria following Monday’s devastating quake that has killed more than 19,300 people in the two countries so far.
The NDRF is working to extricate live victims from under the rubble and providing first-aid to the injured, before handing them over to medical response authorities.
The force is using chip and stone cutters to breach fallen concrete slabs and other infrastructure and has deep radars that pick feeble sounds like the heartbeat or sound of a person, officials said. The teams on the ground have quick deployed antenna and satellite phones for communication.
Seven four-wheeled vehicles and trucks, apart from four canines, were sent along the three teams that were airlifted by an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 heavy lift aircraft from the Hindon air base in Ghaziabad to the Adana airport in Turkiye.
ALSO READ | Operation Dost: Indian team rescues 6-year-old from under debris in quake-hit Turkey | WATCH