Turkish excavators search in rubble where Canadian woman last heard from

The oldest brother of a Canadian woman missing since an earthquake struck Turkey last week says excavation equipment has begun moving rubble at the site where his sister was last heard from.

The Feb. 6 earthquake has killed more than 35,000 people and has turned large portions of cities in Turkey and Syria into fragments of concrete and twisted metal.

1:15 Turkey earthquake: So-called ‘anonymous children’ found in rubble have no idea who their family are

Manaf Zora had said earlier he planned to fly to Istanbul early next week, rent a truck and jackhammers and make his way to the southern Turkish city of Antakya to assist in excavations if his sister Samar Zora still hadn’t been found.

However Zora said from Halifax this afternoon that one of two brothers already in Antakya has told him local search teams “started digging today.”

He says the excavators were carefully lifting pieces of the five-storey building where his sister had been staying _ and from where she’d made calls as the tremors were rippling through the city.

Zora said his brother told him that within 48 hours they should know if their sister, a doctoral student who had just arrived in Antakya to do research, is in the building.

2:02 Maritime Syrian community worries for those impacted by Turkey-Syria earthquake

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.

With files from The Associated Press.