Turkey-Syria earthquake: Huseyin Berber’s story of survival under the rubble

Huseyin Berber’s voice was hoarse from calling for help from under the rubble of his home but he was finally freed more than a week after Turkey’s massive earthquake, defying the odds for survival and one of several remarkable stories to emerge.

Doctors say people can last, even without water, for days. But there are so many variables – what injuries were sustained in a building collapse and how hot or cold is it outside – that rescuers say anything after five days is miraculous.

The earthquake has killed more than 41,000 people across swathes of southeast Turkey and northwest Syria, becoming the area’s deadliest natural disaster in centuries.

Berber, a 62-year-old diabetic, survived 187 hours after the walls of his ground floor flat were propped up by a fridge and a cabinet, leaving him an armchair to sit in and a rug to keep him warm.

He had a single bottle of water, and when that ran out, drank his own urine.

Berber was speaking from a bed at Mersin City Hospital, some 250km from the 15-storey building that collapsed in the city of Antakya in southern Hatay province, where half the buildings were either destroyed or heavily damaged. He was admitted on Tuesday.

He said he had been surrounded by relatives in different rooms in his flat, all of whom he believes managed to survive.