Dramatic Footage of Greek Rescuers Saving Girl Under the Rubble in Turkey

Dramatic footage of a Greek team of rescuers saving a girl trapped under the rubble after the Turkey earthquake has been released.

The body-cam video shows rescuers digging slowly in the rubble of a building to approach survivors. They eventually come across the girl who seems incapable of moving. They ask her in English: “Are you OK?”, she replies by giving a thumbs-up.

New footage shows the dramatic rescue of a young girl, trapped under the rubble of #TurkeyEarthquake by the Greek rescue team. The smile and the calmness of the girl say it all. The resilience of the people of #Turkey is just stunning #Yunanistan pic.twitter.com/LPzbdceg7z

— Makis Mylonas (@MylonasMakis) February 15, 2023

Greek rescuers return home from Turkey

The video was shot late last week before the rescue team returned to Greece.

The Greek mission consisted of 36 officers of the 1st and 2nd EMAK (Special Disaster Response Unit), two officers – engineers of the Fire Brigade with specialization in supporting the ruins of collapsed buildings, eight doctors and ambulance service paramedics, three rescue dogs and three special rescue vehicles, as well as the head of the Organisation for Anti-Seismic Planning and Protection (OASP), Professor Efthymis Lekkas.

Upon returning home Greek rescue workers had nothing but praises for local survivors who extended them a warm welcome.

“Despite the hardships they’ve had to endure, the Turkish people gave us a very friendly welcome and treated us like family,” said one of the rescuers during a press conference on Tuesday.

Sokratis Doukas, a doctor with the rescue team, became emotional as he recounted his team’s first moments in Hatay.

While they were looking to liaise with local officials, a very young boy reached Doukas during the chaos and spontaneously offered him a box of biscuits, the doctor told reporters.

“He must have been 7 or 8 years old,” Doukas said. “It may not sound like it’s anything big but, at that moment, it personally meant so much to me.”

Doktor Sokratis Doukas'ın Türkiye'ye döndükten sonra yaptığı basın toplantısından… pic.twitter.com/ZOu3tLBp4P

— Aris (@voiceofhellas) February 15, 2023

Death toll from the earthquake in Turkey, Syria rises to over 41,000

The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has passed 41,000. Turkish authorities say 36,187 people have been killed in the country. The Syrian government and the United Nations say more than 5,800 people have died in Syria.

More than 13 million people have been affected by earthquakes so far.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias promised on Feb. 12 to continue Greek humanitarian assistance to Turkey over the devastating earthquake.

“We will continue to do our best to overcome difficult times, both at the bilateral and EU level,” the Greek minister said in a joint press statement with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in the southern quake-hit province of Hatay.