Newbury man's family trapped in building for 18 hours after Turkish earthquake

A Newbury man’s family were trapped in a building for 18 hours after a brutal magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Monday last week, writes Max Carter Keall.

Ahmet Olgar, 35, said his brother, Oguz Olgar, 41, his wife, Esen, 37, and their daughters Elif, six, and Ezgi, three, were trapped on the sixth floor of the eight-storey building where they live in Hatay on the south coast of Turkey.

Rescue teams were unable to get to the Olgar family for 18 hours with all four members trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building.

“I am glad they are safe and grateful they are okay, and hopefully they will get over the trauma at some point,” said Ahmet.

“It's horrible stuff, quite depressing. I’ve lost close friends and so many people have died.”

Ahmet’s family had only just moved into the area as they bought the property last year and they were caught inside when the earthquake struck at 4:17am (01.17 GMT) at a depth of 17.9km (11 miles) near the city of Gaziantep.

With news difficult to come by and limited communications from phones, Amet was woken by up to 170 Whatsapp messages flooding through to his phone.

He immediately tried to contact his family but wouldn't hear anything until they were saved a full 18 hours after the earthquake, with his two young cousins pulled out of the rubble first.

Ahmet said: “I was in shock, at first I couldn't read the messages so I just went to work and tried not to think of the worst.

“Normally I wouldn't be on my phone while working but all day I was reading messages on my phone waiting to hear news.”

All of his family were unharmed, but recently went to Mersin City Hospital for check-ups after the incident.

Sadly some of Ahmet’s extended family who lived in the same building were not so fortunate to escape and the national death toll has risen to more than 35,000.

Esen Olgar, the wife of Ahmet’s brother Oguz, lost her sister and nearly all her family who lived on the second floor of the same building.

The only survivor in that family of four was the eldest son, aged 19, who was trapped in the rubble for nearly 90 hours and is now in Mersin City Hospital where he is in real danger of losing his legs after receiving injuries from the quake.

This kind of tragedy is widespread across the nation so Ahmet and his wife Holly, 35, have set up collection points at Laz Turkish Barbers in Bartholomew Street, Turkuaz Restaurant & Bar in the Market Place and 19 Westerdale, Thatcham RG19 3XA for any donations.

They are mostly asking for items that can help those in need, such as baby clothes, cleaning products, torches, blankets and more.

Ahmet said: “We are asking the generous people in Newbury and Thatcham to help in any way they can.”