(AP) – Rescuers cheered as they pulled an 18-year-old man alive from the rubble after surviving almost 200 hours under jagged ruins in Adiyaman, Turkey, Tuesday.
Footage from the Turkish Defence Ministry showed Muhammed Cafer Cetin squinting and wiping his face clean as he saw sunlight for the first time since a devastating earthquake hit over a week ago.
Medics gave him an IV with fluids before attempting a dangerous extraction from a building that crumbled further as rescuers were working.
Medics surrounded him to place a brace around his neck and placed him on a stretcher with an oxygen mask, making it out to daylight in the 199th hour after the quake.
Meanwhile, aid agencies and governments stepped up a scramble Tuesday to send help to parts of Turkey and Syria devastated by the earthquake, but a week after the disaster many complained they still were struggling to find shelter from the bitter cold.
The situation was particularly desperate in Syria, where a 12-year civil war has complicated efforts and meant days of wrangling over how to even move aid into the country.
Some people there who lost their homes said they have received nothing.
In the northern town of Jinderis, in Aleppo, Syrian Civil Defence teams and local people are still searching for survivors under the rubble.
Machinery was being used there to move piles of rubble, but much of the searching is being done by hand.
The quake affected 10 provinces in Turkey that are home to some 13.5 million people, as well as a large area in northwest Syria that is home to millions.
