On Friday evening, Polish and Bulgarian rescuers extracted a 12th person from under the rubble of a building in Besni.
“We have it!!!!! 12th rescued man. Many hours of struggle 🙂 Bravo!!!!!! Champions!!!! PRIDE,”
Andrzej Bartkowiak, Commander-in-Chief of the National Fire Service (PSP), wrote on Twitter.
“Our four-legged rescuers Nuka, Jerry, Jagger, Orion, Havana, Mela, Ruki, and Rico, despite suffering minor injuries during the action, do not give up. Surrounded by care, after medical supplies from our doctors and in proper ‘footwear’ they are fighting on,”
he added.
“Our four-legged rescuer in the search operation,”
Bartkowiak wrote and attached a video.
The HUSAR Poland rescue group – 76 firefighters and eight trained dogs – flew to Turkey on Monday evening. On Tuesday afternoon, it began searching for people trapped under rubble in the Turkish town of Besni, where nearly thirty houses collapsed as a result of the earthquake. So far, Polish firefighters have managed to rescue twelve people.
The Polish rescue team’s operations were expected to continue until Monday, February 13. However, the chief commander of the National Fire Service announced that the firefighters would stay in Turkey until at least Thursday, February 16. The decision to extend the operation was made after consultations between the commander and commander of the HUSAR Poland group, Brigadier Grzegorz Borowiec, with the Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Mariusz Kaminski and Turkish authorities.
Turkey and Syria were hit by earthquakes on Monday, causing massive damage along a several-hundred-kilometre stretch from the Syrian city of Hama to Turkey's Diyarbakir. According to the latest figures, the death toll from the disaster has exceeded 20,000 people.