5 Days After Quake, Teen Found Alive

Boy survived 108 hours in wreckage of shoe shop
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 28, 2011 5:37 AM CDT
5 Days After Turkey Earthquake, Teen Found Alive
In this image taken from a video footage by Anatolia, rescuers pull Ferhat Tokay, 13, center left, from the rubble of a collapsed building in Ercis, Van, Turkey, early today.   (AP Photo/Anatolia via APTN)

Five days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake devastated eastern Turkey, another survivor has been pulled from the rubble. The 13-year-old boy was found in the debris of the collapsed shoe store where he worked in Ercis. Ferhat Tokay said he used the shoes as a pillow when he slept, and tried to dig himself free with the aid of a rock. Despite being trapped for 108 hours, Tokay was apparently unharmed, according to his uncle.

"We started digging and at first we saw his hand. And then we started speaking to him. He said 'I am hungry and thirsty,'" a medic told Reuters of finding Tokay. "My feelings are inexplicable. It was like taking my own son out." Turkey's official death toll has now climbed to 570, with 2,555 injured, and more than 50,000 left homeless, reports the AP. (More Turkey stories.)

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