SCDF officers rescue boy from collapsed building in Türkiye earthquake

SINGAPORE: Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers rescued a boy from a collapsed building in Türkiye, following a deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 15,000 people in the country as well as in Syria.

The 20-member team landed in Adana on Wednesday (Feb 8) and headed to Dulkadiroğlu, Kahramanmaraş to begin search and rescue operations.

Working together with a local rescue team and another from Spain, they rescued the boy from a collapsed three-storey building amid temperatures of about 2 degrees Celsius.

“The Spanish rescue team used their search canine to pinpoint the location of the boy and SCDF used a fibre-optic scope to confirm the visuals of the boy,” SCDF said of the three-hour rescue operation in a Facebook post on Thursday.

"All three rescue teams used their cutting and breaking equipment to create an access through the rubble to reach the boy."

The advance team of SCDF officers consists of officers from the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team, paramedic specialists and a doctor.

An additional 48 SCDF personnel will also be sent to Adana to help with rescue efforts.

The team is from a contingent known as Operation Lionheart. The on standby round-the-clock contingent, with 79 members, was formed in 1990 and has since been deployed on 19 search and rescue or humanitarian relief assistance missions.

This is the 20th Operation Lionheart deployment, and the first one in the European region.