The group of Polish firefighters, mine rescuers and medical workers landed at Warsaw's Okęcie Airport and were given a hero’s welcome on Wednesday afternoon, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
They were greeted by Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and the head of the State Fire Service, Andrzej Bartkowiak.
Addressing the Polish emergency workers, Kamiński called them “our heroes who have returned from an immensely difficult mission.”
He said: “What you’ve done is extraordinary. You’ve saved 12 people, including three small children.”
Kamiński told the team: “All of Poland is proud of you and all of Turkey is grateful to you.”
Meanwhile, Bartowiak said: “Firefighter rescuers say that if you save a person, it’s as if you saved the world.”
He added that the Polish team “saved the world 12 times.”
Polish rescuers help save survivors of Turkish earthquake
A group of 76 Polish firefighters and five medical workers, with eight sniffer dogs, spent a week in the southern Turkish town of Besni, working around the clock to pull survivors from the rubble of the massive earthquake, according to officials.
They saved 12 survivors, reporters were told.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southern Turkey and northern Syria in the early hours of February 6 and was followed by dozens of aftershocks, the PAP news agency reported.
More than 41,000 people are thought to have died in the disaster, although the total death toll may be twice as high, according to some estimates.
In Turkey alone, the earthquake destroyed 47,000 buildings and 211,000 flats, according to PAP.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, dorzeczy.pl