A team from humanitatian aid organisation, Gift of the Givers recovered a live person from the rubble in Turkiye, more than a week after two powerful earthquakes struck the region.

There was excitement, jubilation, hope and faith on Monday 13 February, as Gift of the Givers and the Omani team worked collaboratively to retrieve a live 80 year old lady from the rubble in Hatay province.

The SAPS K9 dogs detected the live individual.

The NGO’s Founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman says a canine rescuer named Donna picked up on the scent of the 80-year-old survivor.

As Turkiye and Syria reels from the aftermath of the quakes, residents of Istanbul have already turned their growing anxiety elsewhere – towards the next big quake.

At least 36 000 people have died and officials say they expect the death toll to continue to rise.

“We live in distress,” said Aysegul Rahvanci, a lifetime Istanbul resident, of her fears about a possible strong earthquake in the city.

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The country is particularly prone to earthquakes, as it lies in an area where several tectonic plates meet. Quakes usually occur along the boundaries between plates. The North Anatolian Fault, which divides the Eurasian and Anatolian plates, runs close to Istanbul.

According to Sukru Ersoy, a professor of geology from Istanbul’s Yildiz Technical University, the question is when a powerful earthquake will hit Istanbul, not if it will happen.

“With the data we have on the past earthquakes, and through certain modellings, we can say that an Istanbul earthquake is near and we would not even be surprised if the city is hit by it today,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that it was impossible to know when the disaster would take place.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said in a recent interview that there were some 90,000 buildings that were highly vulnerable to earthquakes in the megalopolis with a population of some 20 million people.

The mayor said another 170,000 buildings were in the medium-risk status in case of a strong earthquake, according to research conducted by Istanbul Municipality.

After Monday’s earthquakes, more than 6,400 buildings have reportedly collapsed in southeastern Turkey.

Many victims are still thought to be stuck in the rubble of collapsed buildings across the region, as search and rescue efforts continue despite fading hopes of finding survivors.

Source: Al Jazeera, Gift of the Givers