Rescue teams get hero's welcome on their return

China's official rescue team, together with rescuers from Hong Kong, were greeted with a high-profile welcoming ceremony in Beijing on Friday, as they came back from intense rescue operations in Turkiye.

Those who went to the airport to receive them included Xu Jia'ai, vice-minister of emergency management, Abdulkadir Emin Onen, Turkiye's ambassador to China and Wang Linggui, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb 6, which was followed by a magnitude 7.5 temblor and hundreds of aftershocks, resulted in huge casualties in Turkiye. The disaster caused great concern to the Chinese government and people, Xu said.

Arranged by the central authorities, the 82-member Chinese official team raced against time to rush to Turkiye. The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region also sent 59 rescuers to the quake-hit nation. The two teams worked alongside each other, he said.

They achieved multiple miracles in saving lives and have completed their missions in an outstanding manner, the vice-minister added.

Before their departure from Turkiye, the team donated relief supplies to survivors of the devastating earthquakes, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. Foodstuffs, water, hygienic materials, clothes, blankets and 12 big tents were among the donations.

A handover ceremony was held on Thursday in the camp of the team in the Antakya district, Hatay province, the worst-affected region.

"The Chinese team came from far away and helped us. Thank you very much for sharing our pain," XinhuaNews Agency quoted an unnamed officer from Turkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority as saying.

China's official rescue team arrived in Turkiye on Feb 8 with four rescue dogs and over 20 metric tons of equipment, including life detectors. The team freed six survivors in a week, and also recovered 11 bodies from the rubble. In total, they searched over 700,000 square meters in their rescue operation, according to the ministry.

"We spared no efforts to search for vital signs in the rescue operation, never giving up any slim hopes," said Zhao Ming, head of the Chinese official rescue team.

Members of many civilian rescue teams also received a warm welcome when they returned home. Many people cheered and applauded as seven rescuers from the branch of Blue Sky Rescue in Baoding, Hebei province, came out of the local train station on Friday morning.

"I think this is the honor we all share for saving lives," said Bai Haiyan, one of the members of the rescue team.

Blue Sky Rescue is China's largest nongovernmental humanitarian organization. The seven-member Baoding team helped rescue three survivors from the ruins and found 43 bodies when in Turkiye.

Seven members of the Rescue Team of Ramunion, headquartered in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, arrived in Turkiye early on Feb 9, making it the first Chinese civilian rescue team to arrive in the quake-hit nation.

All the seven rescuers had returned to Hangzhou on Thursday afternoon. After their flight landed, there was applause from passengers in the flight to welcome them back home.

"Let's extend our great respect and gratitude to our heroes who have returned with a round of warm applause," a female flight attendant said.