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Zonguldak miners tell of joy, fear in Türkiye quake rescues

Coal miners of northern Zonguldak city, almost 1,000 km from earthquake zone, who joined the first wave of rescuers speak of happy and hardest moments during operations to extricate survivors.

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Songul Goksu, 19, who was rescued by Zonguldak miners from rubble in Adiyaman province, meets with the rescue team for the first time through a video call from her hospital room.

Turkish miners who dug survivors out of collapsed buildings after a massive earthquake have said hearing voices of people beneath the rubble brought both joy that someone was still alive and worry that they would not reach them in time to save them.

"There is no other joy than hearing the voice of a survivor. It is nothing I can explain," said Cemil Dedeoglu, 37.

"There is no other happiness than taking that person out and handing them over to their families. I mean, I wish we could get everyone out without any injuries."

But they said hearing an appeal for help beneath a collapsed building was also tempered with concern about getting them out quickly and without further injury, when survivors were often buried in small spaces and under tonnes of broken concrete.

"It is our hardest moment because we want to get them out as soon as possible," said Musab Basan, 39.

Miners from Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises arrived in southern Hatay province, which was heavily damaged by the massive February 6 earthquakes, shortly after the tremor struck, joining the first wave of rescuers after thousands of buildings fell down or were heavily damaged.

"As miners, we are very used to this kind of pain. We also see demolition in our mines. So this is not an area that we have difficulty in. We can enter the collapsed areas by making fortifications. Here, too, we have been working hard since day one. Sometimes with two or three hours of sleep, we get a call at night, join the task for rescue," Basan said.

'They hug us, they thank us'

The combined death toll for Türkiye and neighbouring Syria has climbed above 42,000, while the region has been hit by more than 4,300 aftershocks, adding to jitters among the shattered population.

More than 108,000 people were injured in Türkiye in the 7.7 magnitude quake that struck at 4:17 am [local time] and another magnitude 7.6 quake nine hours hours later – both epicentred at Kahramanmaras province.

The miners came from the coastal city of Zonguldak, almost 1,000 km north of the earthquake zone.

When the quake struck, Dedeoglu, Basan and their colleagues put their work on hold and deployed to help with rescue efforts.

It required days of work with little sleep, but they said appreciation from relatives of those rescued kept them going.

"Sometimes we meet with their families the next day or they see us on the ground. They hug us, they thank us," said Basan.

"The gratitude that the people here have for us, this is our strongest moment. It gives us extra power, a dedication."