Trapped victims cry for help on social media

It didn’t take long after the devastating earthquake that ripped through southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday morning for desperate appeals to flood social media.

Those unable to contact their loved ones began posting too: images of their relatives and their addresses, pleading for someone to see if they can be found.

The scheme did have some success. One man tweeted that he, his mother and his brother were under rubble in Hatay, one of the worst-hit cities near the Syrian border. After receiving thousands of retweets in less than hour, the family was rescued by people living nearby.

Another man also posted his address. “Please help! We are under debris. There are many people here,” he appealed. One hour later, he announced that he and his mother had been rescued, but his father was not as fortunate.

By Monday evening, at least 1,498 people had been killed in Turkey by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, and another 810 fatalities were confirmed over the border in Syria.

Trapped victims cry for help on social media