Zeliha Hisir tried to speak, but could barely move after her hourslong rescue Tuesday near the epicentre of a powerful earthquake that has devastated parts of Turkiye and Syria.
The 58-year-old woman's eyes darted around in shock and relief as a rescue crew covered her in a bright pink and green fuzzy blanket. Dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt, she had survived through freezing temperatures in Kahramanmaras.
Her son, Mufit Hisir, told The Associated Press that firefighters who flew in from Antalya had rescued his relatives. "Two hours ago my sibling was rescued after a six-hour effort. And my mother's rescue took two hours. They're both well," he said. Crowds gathered at wreckage sites throughout Turkiye, vapour showing the air as people breathed in and out in anticipation of reaching more survivors. Even those who had emerged or escaped collapse in Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake and its aftershocks now had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters. Many felt abandoned. "We don't have a tent, we don't have a heating stove, we don't have anything.