Turkey-Syria earthquake: NI rescuers working through the night

A search and rescue team from Northern Ireland worked through the night in a bid to help people still trapped under earthquake-hit buildings in Turkey.

Ryan Gray and Kyle Murray from K9 Search & Rescue NI have joined the international rescue operation in the southern Turkish city of Adana.

"These people have lost absolutely everything," Mr Gray told BBC News NI.

"And they're still trying and holding out for hope for us to pull their loved ones out of the collapsed buildings."

The two-man team and their search dogs Max and Delta flew to Turkey on Friday and are working with Evolsar - the European Association of Civil Protection Volunteer Teams.

They will spend their days searching through rubble piles and their nights sleeping in tents despite the sub-zero temperatures.

They have not had much chance to sleep yet as they are also on call at night if teams hear signs of someone trapped at the site of a collapsed building.

"Last night, just when we went to bed, we actually got a call," Mr Gray said.

Rescuers still on site believed that a 20-year-old woman was trapped under the rubble of a high-rise tower block.

"We got the call at about 10:30 [on Saturday night] and we left the scene at 05:00 this morning when they were still digging," Mr Gray said.

"The dogs that we're using only find live people. They had indicated on the rubble pile, which then led to the rescue teams to start digging.

"We also brought in our colleagues who have specialist listening equipment and at that point they could hear her moving about within the rubble.

"It was a seven-story building so obviously it took an incredibly long time to dig down.

"My understanding is she had not long passed away whenever they recovered her this afternoon."

The victim was among more than 30,000 people who are now known to have died after two major earthquakes, measuring 7.8 and 7.5 on the magnitude scale, hit Turkey and Syria early last week.

Despite the passage of time and the freezing conditions, people are still being pulled alive from the rubble, giving hope to waiting families and exhausted rescuers.

Mr Gray said people in Adana were becoming increasing distraught and desperate at the sites of collapsed buildings.

"The atmosphere is changing a little bit," he explained.

"All the locals are very, very welcoming but whenever we get to a stage when we're on a rubble pile there's a lot of frustration.

"It's got to the point now where we can't leave our camp without armed security guards.

"That's not just us, that's all the international rescue teams that we're currently co-located with."

Mr Gray said there have been "physical scuffles and arguments" at sites where distressed relatives are waiting for their loved ones to be pulled from collapsed buildings.

"Obviously people are at the rubble piles and they are extremely worried about their family members and friends that are buried in there, and there have been some clashes at the scene."

The team from the Bangor-based charity trained with their dogs in Northern Ireland in the days before their deployment to Turkey, but nothing could have prepared them for the scenes they are witnessing in the quake-hit area.

The team is staying at a makeshift camp in the grounds of a nearby university, along with many other international search and rescue workers.

"We're all in tents. It was -6C last night, I believe. It's incredibly cold." Mr Gray said.

"The atmosphere among the rescue workers is we're still cracking on, we're still doing everything we possibly can.

"Obviously as time goes on it will start to move from rescue to recovery phase."

Asked how his team were coping with the extreme challenges they face, he said they were "doing OK" so far.

"It is certainly physically dangerous. We're ok, we're still very much in work mode and we'll keep doing as much as we can for as long as we can."

On Sunday evening the men and their dogs moved on to the Turkish city of Adiyaman.

They arrived at a search site just as a young child was being taken from the rubble alive.

"One of the medics helped with the stretcher, he thinks it was a girl approximately seven years old," Mr Gray said.

"So there is still hope."