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Topics: News, World News
Rachel Lang
Topics: News, World News
A Turkish university student has helped rescuers locate him and his family by sharing his location on WhatsApp following Monday's massive earthquake, which has killed more than 20,000 people.
Rescuers have been racing against time to pull people from the rubble across quake-ravaged regions in Syria and Turkey.
Boran Kubat, 20, was visiting his family in Malatya, eastern Turkey, when the twin seismic events struck.
"We were caught asleep in both earthquakes. It suddenly shook, I lowered my head as soon as I opened my eyes. I saw my mother fall next to me, a black area formed in the daylight," he told Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency.
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As the world caved in around him, the Istanbul university student felt his phone fall at his side.
The student then uploaded a video to WhatsApp, describing his address in detail and begging for help from rescuers.
“Whoever sees this WhatsApp status, please come and help," he pleaded.
"Please, everyone, come and rescue us now."
Rescuers did in fact heed his call, with Kubat calling his friends and sharing more detail on social media while he waited in the wreckage for almost six hours.
"We were on the phone all the time, but the phone [rang] once and didn't work," the 20-year-old explained.
He added: "My friends helped a lot. They hit us with a sledgehammer. I said 'this spot'. They found us after four or five hits."
Kubat told Anadolu that his mother was rescued with him, but his uncle and grandmother were still trapped in the ruins of their home.
He thanked those who heard his voice on social media and rushed to his aid.
Despite hope beginning to fade and as rescue missions turn into body recovery, some lucky few are still being pulled from the rubble alive.
As per Reuters, a two-year-old boy was picked out of the rubble by a Romanian and Polish joint rescue team 79 hours after the earthquake.
As per a video released by Turkey's Humanitarian Relief Foundation, the boy cried as he was gently pulled from the hole in which he'd been trapped.
The boy, wearing a blue, white and black striped sweater, was carried away on a blanket to receive medical aid.
According to a report by Turkey's Bogazici University, 40 per cent of the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the 7.8 magnitude quake, has been left in ruins.