Nenad Ikonic, one of the rescuers from Bosnia and Herzegovina who are helping save as many lives as possible in Turkey at the moment, spoke to N1 about the situation on the ground. However, the conversation wouldn’t last for too long, as he has to go and try to save someone’s life.
Ikonic is a member of the Mountain Rescue Service of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity. Speaking from an area on the border between Turkey and Syria, he explained that the place where he is located at the moment used to be a “city of millions which has disappeared under ruins”.
“We are in the very south of Turkey, on the border with Syria. Here, a city of literally millions disappeared under the ruins. We received information from AFAD (Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency), we came with two search dogs and a thermal camera”, he said, explaining that the rescuers search the ruins with pulse cameras.
“The temperature was minus 13 degrees last night, around 4 this morning when we finished,” he said.
“None of us were prepared for something of this capacity. Our searches are trained for searching for survivors using dogs and thermal imaging cameras. When we don’t succeed, then the construction machines are used and we inspect the cracks, any space where a person may fit. We are fighting against time, but we hope that there are still survivors in this city”, he said.
Ikonic was then suddenly interrupted by a call from AFAD.
“We received information that we have to end here. Goodbye, I must enter the ruins”, he said.