Turkiye earthquake: Cold conditions fail to chill spirit of M'sian SAR team in quake mission

GAZIANTEP (Turkiye): The Malaysian search and rescue (SAR) team in Nurdagi here have not allowed extremely cold conditions to hinder them from carrying on with their mission of searching for earthquake victims there.

National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) operations implementation section director Datuk Mohd Khairi Khairudin said the team was instead in high spirits and even more motivated after successfully rescuing a family of five who were trapped in the ruins of a building last Saturday.

"Alhamdulillah, even when faced with such cold weather of up to -10 Celsius during the night, the team is still in high spirits.

"We will send even more necessities for their use against the cold weather," he told Bernama nad RTM after visiting the SAR team's operation centre in Nurdagi Stadium here yesterday.

He was also taken to observe the team's operation camp and received a briefing about the SAR operations during his visit.

Mohd Khairi also presented necessities, including additional cold weather clothing, thick blankets and food items for the SAR team.

Tens of thousands of lives were lost when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit southern Turkiye and northwest Syria last Monday, with aftershocks felt as far as Cyprus and Lebanon.

Turkiye on Tuesday announced a three-month emergency period for 10 provinces, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa to allow rescue efforts to proceed smoothly.

-- BERNAMA