Turkey-Syria Earthquake Update Student Family Rescued After Posting WhatsApp Status Video With Location Information Details

Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Earthquake has caused terrible devastation in Turkey and Syria. In both the countries, the death toll in the earthquake has crossed 35 thousand. According to the United Nations, this figure can go beyond 50 thousand. Meanwhile, many such rescue incidents are coming to the fore, which is nothing less than a miracle. Hundreds of hours after the earthquake, people are still being pulled out of the rubble. Technology has a hand in one such miracle, where a 20-year-old Istanbul student and his family members were saved with the help of a WhatsApp status shared by him.

Vice’s AccordingThe student, Boran Kubat, was visiting relatives in Malatya when the second earthquake struck on Monday afternoon last week. Malatya in eastern Turkey was badly hit by the earthquake and Kubat was trapped under the rubble of an apartment block along with his relatives.

Reports suggest that on Monday last week, the family re-entered the block after surviving the first earthquake in the early hours of the morning, but the building collapsed in the afternoon after a second earthquake of magnitude 7.5. Although buried under the debris, Kubat had his smartphone with him, in which, using the instant messaging app WhatsApp, Kubat shared a video in which he gave his complete address and asked people for help.

In the video, he reportedly said in Turkish, “Whoever is looking at this WhatsApp status, please come and help. Everyone please come and save us.”

Thanks to the information she provided, rescue workers were able to locate the family, and Kubat and her mother and uncle were pulled from the rubble.

The report further states that after emerging from the wreckage, Kubat told a Reuters reporter standing nearby, (translated) “I had my telephone, so I thought if I shared a video on social media, my Friends can see it and they can reach out to us.”