Five-year-old rescued in Hatay after 51 hours

A 5-year-old girl was rescued from the rubble 51 hours after quakes hit southern Turkey.

Search and rescue efforts in Hatay, one of the 10 cities that is most affected by the earthquake, continued uninterruptedly at Tuesday night.

While the rescue teams were racing against time, a sound was heard from debris in the industrial area. The teams, who worked for three hours in the area where the sound was heard, reached a 5-year-old girl.

The child was immediately taken to the hospital by medical teams. Search and rescue efforts continue in the earthquake-hit region, reports The Daily Sabah.

A woman named Nurgul Atay told the Associated Press she could hear her mother's voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province.

But rescuers did not have the heavy equipment needed to rescue her. "If only we could lift the concrete slab, we'd be able to reach her," she said. "My mother is 70 years old, she won't be able to withstand this for long."

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,647 people were killed in Hatay alone, the highest toll of any Turkish province.