Hungarian Baptist Aid Rescue Team Back from Turkey

On Sunday morning, the rescue team of the Hungarian Baptist Aid – the HUBA Rescue24 Firefighting and Search and Rescue International Group together with medical experts, 18 in total, and eight search dogs – arrived at Budapest's Liszt Ferenc Airport from Turkey where they had rescued seven people from the rubble.

The team, which worked in Antakya for five days, arrived with two tons of equipment on a flight from Istanbul. The team was greeted by family members, colleagues and members of the press, as well as representatives of the Turkish Embassy, who offered flowers, applause and food.

László Pavelcze, head of the search and rescue team and director of emergency management at the charity, said that seven people had been rescued from the rubble, two of whom were in critical condition, and that another 5-6 survivors had been reported and were being rescued by other teams.

He said that their options were running out. “There is still a minimal chance of finding survivors, as there may be buildings that have collapsed in such a way that they have almost hermetically sealed off parts of them, so that the air has not cooled completely. If they are careful with the concrete dozers, they may still be lucky enough to save people," he added.

He stressed the perseverance of the ‘sniffer dogs’ who "can't be fooled" and "do their job", and the heroic work of the team members who did most of the digging, drilling, boring, sometimes breaking through 3-4-5 stories of buildings, excavating rubble, cutting iron and concrete to get to people trapped in the rubble.

He also pointed out that although the team of experts came from several organizations, a good part of the company had been working together for 30 years and had worked together in 1999 to rescue people during the earthquake in Turkey. He added that the attitude of the Turkish people had not changed and they were still helpful, but the circumstances were very different and the current conditions of devastation "shocked everyone."