"The Angel Sent by God, Our Daughter, Has Returned to God"

Father Holding His Deceased Daughter's Hand Tightly Amidst the Debris

A single photograph conveyed the devastation of the T?rkiye earthquake more vividly to the world than a hundred words or thousands of lines of text. It was a photo of a father unable to let go of his daughter's hand, who died trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building, taken by an AFP news agency photographer on the 7th (local time).

The father in the photo, Mesut Hanzer (49), said in an interview with CNN T?rk on the 11th (local time), "My daughter lost her life immediately without any chance to escape as soon as the earthquake occurred."

On the 7th (local time), Mesut Hanzer is holding the hand of his deceased 15-year-old daughter Son, trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building in Kahramanmara?, southeastern Turkey.
[Photo by AFP·Yonhap News]

On the 6th, when the strong earthquake struck the southern region of T?rkiye, Hanzer was baking bread in the early morning.

He called his wife to confirm that their two daughters and son were safe, but he could not get any news of their youngest daughter, 15-year-old Irmak.

At that time, Irmak was staying at her grandmother's house in Kahramanmara?. He urgently tried to contact her, but the phone did not connect.

Hanzer hurried to Kahramanmara?. He said, "I prayed to God while crying. I prayed countless times that everyone would be alive."

But the prayers were in vain. The place he arrived at with great difficulty had already turned into ruins.

He found his daughter's hand protruding from the rubble and began frantically digging through the debris with his bare hands. However, his daughter, crushed under a massive concrete slab, did not move.

With no heavy machinery arriving to clear the debris, Hanzer had no choice but to hold tightly onto his daughter's hand. He said, "My daughter was sleeping like an angel in bed," adding, "She left without pain. The angel sent by God returned to God."

Hanzer is reported to have lost a total of seven relatives, including his daughter and mother, in this earthquake.

Meanwhile, Adem Altan, the AFP photographer who took this photo, happened to find Hanzer. When Hanzer saw Altan with a camera, he reportedly kept shouting, "Please take a picture of my child."

Photo by Adem Altan, AFP News Agency [Photo by AFP·Yonhap News]

According to The Guardian, Adem Altan arrived in Kahramanmara? to cover the earthquake scene and found Hanzer wearing an orange coat among the rubble of a collapsed apartment building. Unlike others around who were digging through the debris to rescue people, Hanzer was sitting quietly on top of the rubble.

Altan said, "When I looked closer, I saw a man holding a hand emerging from under the rubble," and "so I started taking pictures."

In an interview with The Guardian, Altan said, "I was so sad while taking the photos. I kept murmuring 'incredible pain' and couldn't hold back my tears."

He also said, "This photo has received more attention than any photo I have taken in over 40 years," but added, "I cannot say I am happy. It was a disaster."