The Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) Operation Lionheart, in collaboration with the Local Emergency Management Agency (Lema), has rescued a man in Kahramanmaras, southeast Turkey. The rescue mission was conducted after faint calls of help were heard from a two-story building that had partially collapsed following a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday. The earthquake resulted in a rising death toll that has surpassed 21,000 and caused widespread destruction to infrastructure and buildings, leaving thousands injured and homeless in near-freezing temperatures.

The SCDF and Lema teams worked together to access the second floor of the partially collapsed building where the calls of help were heard. The man was trapped behind a large concrete slab and was rescued through the use of a fiber-optic scope and breaking equipment. The man was attended to by locals after he was brought down from the building. On Wednesday, SCDF officers also rescued a boy from the rubble of a collapsed building in the same town in a three-hour operation that involved the help of local Turkish and Spanish rescue teams.

An advance team of 20 SCDF officers arrived in Adana, southern Turkey on Wednesday, and a second team of 48 SCDF personnel and four dogs from its K-9 unit arrived on Friday evening. The second team brought additional search and rescue equipment, medical supplies, and communications and logistics support equipment to support the ongoing rescue operations in the area.

Source: The Straits Times