Hope floats for Bengalurean missing in Turkiye quake

Hope floats for Bengalurean missing in Turkiye quake

By Chetan MG| Express News Service | Published: 11th February 2023 07:22 AM

BENGALURU: The family and friends of the lone Indian who went missing in the Turkiye earthquake hope he may have survived it. Vijay Kumar (36), a technician with Bengaluru-based Oxyplants India Pvt Ltd has been incommunicado since the February 6 pre-dawn quake that has already killed over 22,000 people in Turkyie and Syria so far.

The Indian embassy in Turkiye informed Oxyplants that rescuers have found his baggage, ID card, and some of his other belongings in the rubble of Hotel Avsar in Malatya in Turkiye where he was staying since January 25, the company’s MD Ramesh Siddappa told this newspaper.

The hotel collapsed in the massive quake along with thousands of other structures. It is believed Kumar left the hotel before the earthquake struck. Rescue teams are now searching for him in hospitals.

Kumar, who hails from Dehradun, had voluntarily opted to go to Turkiye despite another technician being initially chosen by his firm for the installation and commissioning of an acetylene gas plant.

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The company is in touch with the Indian Embassy in Ankara and keeping his family in the loop. Kumar’s elder brother Arun Kumar told this newspaper over phone from Dehradun, “We suspect he left the hotel before it came down. Now, we are pinning our hopes that he will be found in one of the hospitals soon and will return to India.”