Compassionate police officer carries wounded Syrian mother on his back in southern Turkey


A Turkish police officer has touched everyone's hearts with his act of compassion, carrying an injured Syrian mother for two kilometers on his back under the scorching sun in Turkey's southern Hatay province.

The 40-year-old Syrian mother of two was found with leg injuries and wounds on her body by a police officer at the Turkish-Syrian border.

According to sources, the woman was unable to move due to her injuries and her situation was reported to the police by nearby locals who heard her cries for help.

The Syrian woman said she was trying to illegally flee from Syria with her two young children, aged 5 and 8, before she fell and injured herself on the rugged land.

Aware that emergency service workers or ambulances would be unable to access the rugged and rough roads, the officer carried the lady on his back to the closest main road which was two kilometers away.

The incident was recorded on a mobile phone by nearby locals. The footage showed the police officer carrying the woman on his back, occasionally taking quick rest stops along the way.

The video quickly went viral among Turkish social media users with many people praising his effort.

Ambulance staff found many bruises and wounds on the woman's body on the way to the hospital.

Turkey has been the first destination for the majority of displaced people seeking a safe haven since the conflict started. Figures show about 1.5 million of the 3.4 million refugees from Syria live in Hatay, Gaziantep, Kilis, Şanlıurfa and Mardin, which border Syria. Istanbul, the country's most populated city with 14.6 million residents, has 537,829 refugees. Refugees from Syria account for about 4.29 percent of the total population and Turkey hosts the largest refugee population from Syria in the world, something Ankara repeatedly boasts about.