Turkey teen rescued after 5 days,survived on rain water

Tokay was discovered early Friday morning,soon after rescue workers from Azerbaijan had sent the uncle and other relatives away from the site to get some rest,saying there was no chance of finding the boy alive.

“He didn’t even have a scratch on him!” the uncle,Sahin Tokay,told NTV television. “He was hungry on the first day,but the hunger pangs later disappeared.”

The 7.2 magnitude quake levelled about 2,000 buildings in eastern Turkey on Sunday,killing at least 575 people and leaving about 2,500 injured and thousands of homeless.

Authorities say another 5,700 buildings are now unfit for habitation. The government’s crisis management centre said 187 people have been freed from the rubble alive. Search and rescue operations have ended in the provincial capital of Van,but they are continuing in Ercis,another hard-hit area.

Ferhat was working in a shoe shop on the ground floor of a multistorey building in the town when the quake hit. State-run Anatolia news agency said he kept alive by drinking water that dripped to him in the wreckage during heavy rains.

The 213-person Azerbaijani rescue team that saved Tokay on Friday is equipped with sniffer dogs and it has saved nine other people from the wreckage since Sunday night.

On Thursday,the team pulled 18-year-old Imdat Padak from another destroyed building in Ercis. During that effort,rubble hit one of its sniffer dogs,Cip,while it was searching a narrow gap,seriously injuring its paws.

Meanwhile,rescue workers from dozens of countries continue to deliver tents,prefabricated homes,blankets and heaters to the desolate and cold areas hit by the quake.

Officials said Friday that some aid trucks have been looted before reaching Ercis.