With flowers in hand and with open arms shortly after midnight on Sunday at Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki, their colleagues greeted 15 people from EMAK, along with a doctor and two rescuers from EKAV, who took part in the rescue work. earthquake victims in Turkey.

“All members of the detachment worked selflessly and showed a high level of training,” said 2nd EMAK Operations Officer, Deputy Fire Chief Miltiadis Karageorgiadis, and continued: flattened … From the first hour when we heard about the earthquake, we all wanted to be there, finally we were, we tried from the first to the last minute. Imagine that until this morning (yesterday) seven members of the team tried to pull out a 24-year-old athlete buried under the rubble, but, unfortunately, to no avail. We started the operation without any visual or audible signal, nevertheless we tried until seven in the morning, but to no avail. We are happy that some people were released alive, we hope that others will be found, although the window of time is narrowing as time goes on, and we are now talking about miracles.

The Greek team attempted the city of Hatay at a considerable distance from the epicenter of the earthquakes, but even there the destruction was great.

The vice-captain noted the warmth with which the citizens of Turkey met the Greek delegation.

“They hugged us from the first moment. It was very touching now that we were coming back and we had a Greek flag on the rescue car, they greeted us, they told us: “You are brothers.” Very dramatic”.

Director of EKAV Thessaloniki Central Macedonia, Christina Karabelidou, was also at the airport to greet the rescuers who took part in the mission, who said she was very touched and proud of the medical staff and, in general, all participants in the mission. . “They had a perfect collaboration,” Ms. Karabelidou said.

Source: RES-IPE