“We are waiting with hope, God willing, we will get good news,” he said in Diyarbakir, a city of 1.2 million people. Adhikendra.
For Hasan Sansar, who fled with his family into the street when the quake was felt, the lack of connectivity was ominous.
“We called our relatives and were scared when we could not reach anyone. There are acquaintances under the rubble right now,” he said.
More than 2,400 people have been killed and thousands more injured in Turkey and northwestern Syria.
Some survivors were being pulled from the rubble, offering moments of hope despite fears the death toll would rise.
“Slowly, slowly,” shouted a rescue worker as a man in a neckbrace was passed on his stretcher over the heads of paramedics waiting beside a collapsed building.
Before sunrise, scores of helpers tried to carefully lift and sift through the wreckage by hand or using shovels and chains, looking for signs of life. Some raised the debris with poles.