CNN
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A week has passed since the outbreak An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 shook turkey and Syriahas taken more lives than 36,000 people. Tens of thousands more were injured. Millions could remain homeless.
Few images capture the devastation of the past week so clearly as Mesut Hancer’s.
He was photographed holding the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak, under the rubble of Kahramanmaras, a city in southern Turkey near the epicenter of the quake. He said there was no chance for her to escape the moment she hit.
In an interview with CNN Turk on Saturday, Hanser opened up about the life behind the image that has come to define last week’s tragic disaster.
Hanser said Irmak was visiting his grandmother and spent three days trying to save her body from the debris.
“It was terrible. As soon as I heard the news, I rushed there. And with my bare hands, with my own means, I tried very hard to pull my daughter out. Unfortunately, I saved my daughter.” I couldn’t,” said Hanser.
“Apart from losing a mother, father, or brother, losing a child is another level of despair,” he said.
When Hanser arrived at the wreckage, the horrifying reality of the situation was revealed.
“My daughter had a big beam, so there was no hope. Her upper body was free, but her lower body was under the rubble,” he said. “Unfortunately for her, she died on the spot during the earthquake. She didn’t have a chance to survive.”
Hancer said it took her three days to free her daughter’s body from the debris.
“By my own efforts, by my own means, I found her. I couldn’t ask anyone. [for help]There are many people under the rubble,” he said.
The death toll in Turkey has reached 31,643, the Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM said on Monday. The confirmed death toll in Syria stands at 4,574.
Rescue work Damage continues in both countries, but officials are overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.is more than 5,700 buildings It collapsed in Turkey, according to the country’s disaster agency.
“I also spoke with AFAD [the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency in Turkey], and they helped as much as they could. But they said they couldn’t provide excavators to the area,” Hanser said.
Hanser’s daughter isn’t the only one grieving. The earthquake struck while his family was traveling across Turkey to the mother’s house where his daughter was staying.
“My mother, my two brothers, my sister-in-law, and her little daughter. There were seven, including my daughter. They were all under the rubble,” said Hanser.
Hanser’s house was also badly damaged, he said, adding that he had nowhere to stay.
Thousands of families face similar grief and devastation.
Meanwhile, amid mounting public anger over the government’s handling of the disaster, Turkish authorities have carried out a wave of arrests of property developers accused of “negligence” over the collapse of buildings following last week’s earthquake.
