BEIJING: Rescue teams dispatched by the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region returned to Beijing on a chartered plane Friday afternoon, after completing their rescue missions in Turkiye, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
After arriving in the affected area on Feb 8, the Chinese rescue teams carried out search and rescue operations in the southern Turkish province of Hatay near the epicenter of the earthquake, said Zhao Ming, head of the Chinese rescue team.
The team searched and evaluated 87 buildings with a total area of over 700,000 square meters. They rescued six trapped survivors and located 11 people who had died in the disaster.
Earlier, When Bai Haiyan and his companions ate at a restaurant near the airport in Istanbul, Turkiye a few days ago, a local man came to them and offered to treat them and provide them with accommodation for free after discovering they were there for rescue missions.
“He was very friendly and hospitable,” Bai said, adding that things like this had happened from time to time during their 5-day stay in Turkiye, which impressed him.
“Everywhere we went in Turkiye, we met warm Turkish people like the man in the airport, “ Bai recalled.
Bai is one of the seven members from the Blue Sky Rescue branch in Baoding, Hebei province. The Blue Sky Rescue is China’s largest nongovernmental humanitarian organization.
Among many other rescuers, the seven members went to Turkiye right after devastating earthquakes struck Turkiye and Syria on Feb 6.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exhange item
