Bangladeshi student Golam Saeed Rinku, who was trapped in a building after a destructive earthquake hit at magnitude 7.8 in southern Turkey on Monday, has been rescued.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam confirmed the matter by a post on social media at 9:50 PM on Tuesday (Feb 7).

He wrote - "'Alhamdulillah', Golam Sayed Rinku was rescued alive in Turkey. He has been taken to the hospital for treatment."

On Monday February 6, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake has knocked down multiple buildings in southeast Turkey and northern Syria, leaving 284 deaths, while another 237 people died in Syria.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was centred about 33km (20 miles) from Gaziantep, a major city and provincial capital. It was about 18km (11 miles) deep, and a strong 6.7 aftershock rumbled about 10 minutes later.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the earthquake.

In northwest Syria, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defence described the situation in the rebel-held region as “disastrous”, adding that entire buildings had collapsed and people were trapped under the rubble.

Today February 8, the death toll of a devastating earthquake in southern Turkey and Syria jumped to more than 8,000 people as rescuers worked against time in harsh winter conditions to dig survivors out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.

As the scale of the disaster became ever more apparent, the death toll looked likely to rise considerably. One UN official said thousands of children may have died.

BDST: 1330 HRS, FEB 08, 2023
MSK/SMS