Girl, 3, rescued after 91 hours under earthquake rubble in Turkey

A young girl has been pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in the Turkish city of Izmir, four days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Greece.

The girl was seen being taken into an ambulance, wrapped in a thermal blanket, as rescue workers and onlookers clapped and chanted “God is great”.

Media reports identified her as four-year-old Ayla Gezgin. She had been trapped inside the rubble for 91 hours since Friday’s quake struck in the Aegean Sea.

Rescuer Nusret Aksoy told reporters that he heard a child scream and asked his colleagues for silence so they could locate her.

The team then saw her arm in between blocks of concrete and were able to talk to her.

Rescuers said she waved at them, told them her name and said she was okay.

She then asked for water and ayran, a Turkish yoghurt and water mixture commonly drunk by Turks.

Ayla was found in the kitchen, protected by the dishwasher and the washing machine, said one rescue worker.

She did not have any injuries and did not look as if she had been under tons of concrete and dust, he added.

Ayla’s rescue came a day after a three-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl were also pulled out alive from collapsed buildings in Izmir.

Idil Sirin was saved from under a toppled building she had been trapped beneath for about 58 hours.

Shortly afterwards, three-year-old Elif Perincek was rescued some 65 hours after her apartment building also crumbled.

The number of people who have died following the earthquake has now reached 102, after emergency crews recovered more bodies elsewhere in Turkey’s third-largest city.

The US Geological Survey rated Friday’s quake at 7.0 magnitude, although other agencies in Turkey recorded it as less severe.

The vast majority of the deaths and nearly 1,000 injuries occurred in Izmir.