'No info yet about any Indian trapped in quake-hit Turkey'

ANKARA: Indian ambassador to Turkey Virander Paul on Saturday said that there is no information yet about any Indians trapped in the earthquake hit Turkey.

"There are 3000 Indian people in Turkey. Not many are in earthquake-affected areas, many have moved out. We are in touch with them. We have no information just yet about any Indian trapped," the ambassador said.

"A field hospital has been set up by the Indian Army in Hatay province. Two C-17 aircraft brought medical team required to set up the hospital with 30 beds," Paul said.

The ambassador said that Turkey's situation is very dynamic. India, however, remains responsive towards the affected people's needs. "Situation is very dynamic, everyday we come across new requirements.

As far as India is concerned, we remain responsive towards the needs of people here," Paul said. India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in coordination with the Turkish Army on Friday rescued an 8-year-old girl from earthquake-hit Turkey.

The girl was stuck alive under the rubble of a building flattened by the massive earthquake in Nurdagi, Gaziantep in Turkey.

"Hard work & motivation pays; NDRF team in co-ordination with Turkish Army successfully rescued another live victim (Girl aged 8Yrs) @1545hrs at Loc:Bahceli Evler Mahallesi, Nurdagi, Gaziantep, Turkiye," the NDRF tweeted.

The NDRF tweet shared an image of the ongoing rescue operations in Turkey. The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) on Saturday reported that rescuers pulled out children on Friday (local time) from the rubble of the Turkey-Syria earthquake as the toll crossed 24,000.

The confirmed death toll from the deadliest quake in the region in two decades stood at more than 24,000 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria four days after it hit. The stench of death hung over Turkey's eastern city of Kahramanmaras -- the epicentre of the first 7.8-magnitude tremor that upturned millions of lives in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.

It is located in a remote region filled with people already displaced by war, reported France24. Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to this week's huge earthquake.

Erdogan on Friday visited Turkey's Adiyaman province, where he acknowledged the government's response was not as fast as it could have been. "Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be," he said.