Turkey Earthquake: British firefighters pull two people out alive after hours of digging through rubble

A video of British firefighters pulling out a police officer and a woman alive from under the debris of a building in Turkey has now gone viral on the internet.

The two were trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building since last Monday when the earthquake hit the region. They were rescued on Saturday in the Hatay province of Turkey.

The footage recorded from the incident shows members of the UK International Search and Rescue (UK-ISAR) team digging through the rubble to make way for the Turkey earthquake victims.

Pulling them out alive from under the debris was a challenging task since they were trapped under the rubble of a collapsed multi-story building. But the team did not give up and continued their work as they could hear them tapping and shouting.

"These people were entombed in rubble and debris and we had to work around the clock to bring them out alive," said Phil Irving, who was part of the UK-ISAR team.

"It was a catastrophic collapse and access was difficult. They were trapped in there for over five days and it will stay with me, their incredible capacity to keep going, hope and believe," he added.

Several such stories of people going out of their way to help the victims of the devastating earthquake have emerged over the last few days.

In a similar incident reported from the Gaziantep region of Turkey, two nurses at a local hospital risked their lives to save the lives of infants after the earthquake hit the region.

A CCTV clip from the hospital has gone viral on the internet. It shows the nurses rushing towards the ICU the moment the ground started shaking. They could be seen holding the baby incubators in the ICU firmly so they do not trip over.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria last Monday, per Aljazeera.

At least 29,605 people lost their lives in Turkey, while 3,500 died in Syria. The search and rescue operations to locate the survivors are still underway. The death toll in Syria is likely to be higher since the authorities have not updated the data since Friday.

Turkey lies in a sensitive seismic zone and is prone to earthquakes. But this earthquake was significantly destructive. It is among the world's deadliest earthquakes reported in the last 25 years.

According to experts, Turkey lies at the intersection of three tectonic plates, and the movement of these tectonic plates is what causes tremors and earthquakes. Therefore, it may face similar devastating earthquakes sometime in the future.