ATHENS – A new operation was launced by the Greek rescue team in Hatay, Turkiye on Friday, after reports that a couple of Greek descent, aged 65 and 62, respectively, may be trapped inside. Family members of the couple contacted the Greek embassy to report that they were missing.

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The Greek rescue mission submitted a special request on Friday to go to the specific six-storey building and try to locate the couple. There are already 23 rescuers from the 1st and 2nd EMAK at the site, as well as three doctors, two rescue dogs and two special machines.

“On Friday morning we tabled a special request to allow us to conduct a rescue operation at the specific building, a six-storey building with two apartments on each floor. The authorities gave us the green light and the Greek mission went to the site, in the centre of Hatay,” the Fire Brigade spokesperson Giannis Artopios told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

He said the specific building has been checked by other rescue teams but not the Greek one. “The fact that those missing are Greek is something very important for us and we must for symbolic reasons carry out a search and rescue operation there,” he said.