Man rescued 278 hours after earthquakes in Türkiye's Hatay
An aerial view of Hatay province in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, Türkiye, Feb. 17, 2023. (Reuters Photo)


Emergency teams rescued a man from rubble in Hatay province on Friday, 278 hours after major earthquakes devastated Türkiye's southeast.

The man, identified as Hakan Yasinoğlu, was pulled from the rubble of a building in the Elektrik neighborhood in the Defne district.

He was immediately rushed to the hospital after being rescued, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

Over 84,000 buildings were damaged in the Feb. 6 earthquakes, which wreaked havoc in 10 provinces in Türkiye's south.

With the death toll still mounting, the massive earthquake that struck southeastern Türkiye and northwestern Syria on Feb. 6 is among the 10 deadliest earthquakes of the past 100 years with over 41,000 dead as of Friday.

Though the latest earthquakes are dubbed the "disaster of the century" due to their sheer scale and unusually high death toll, earthquakes are nothing out of the ordinary with thousands of tremors taking place all over the country. Most of Türkiye is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which sits between two major plates, the Eurasian and African, and a minor one, the Arabian. As the larger African and Arabian plates shift, Türkiye is literally being squeezed, while the Eurasian plate impedes any northward movement. Thus, Türkiye sits on several fault lines. The most potentially devastating fault line in the country is the North Anatolian fault line (NAF), where the Anatolian and Eurasian plates meet. It runs from just south of Istanbul all the way to northeastern Türkiye. The NAF has produced devastating earthquakes throughout history.