Shaken but safe: Zahirul (left) and Wan Isyraf are currently under the care of the Malaysian Embassy in Ankara, Turkiye. — Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: “Currently, even the slightest earth movement scares me. I am still traumatised,” says Zahirul Amin Mohamad.
The student at Gaziantep University is currently under the care of the Malaysian Embassy in Ankara, Turkiye.
Recalling the moments before the deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkiye and Syria on Monday, Zahirul, 21, who is learning Islamic History at the university, said he was watching television.
“We often felt minor tremors in Gaziantep. So, I was not bothered. But on Monday, after a few minor tremors, it suddenly felt different. We were really shaken.
“At first, I didn’t know what to do. My hostel is on the fifth floor and when I saw my floor mates running down, I decided to just follow suit.
“Electricity was cut off and I left the room only with the clothes on my back. I just grabbed my phone so that I could call home,” he told Bernama in a telephone interview from the Malaysian Embassy in Ankara yesterday.
The quake, which was centred in Turkiye’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, 78km from Gaziantep, and has so far killed more than 16,000 people in both Turkiye and Syria, is said to be the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years.
Before the subsequent tremors, Zahirul said he and his other friends, including another Malaysian student, Wan Isyraf Wan Haziq, 19, who is also at the embassy now, managed to go back to their respective rooms to secure some essentials.
While Zahirul is a second-year student at the university, Wan Isyraf just enrolled for Turkyish Language studies at the university four months ago.
Zahirul said although the hostel was still standing, the earthquake had left cracks in the building and was deemed unsafe.
“On the first day, we stayed at a nearby mosque, which eventually got crowded.
“On the second day, we learned that the university was providing accommodation. So, we went back there,” he said.
By then, the Malaysian Embassy managed to contact Zahirul and Wan Isyraf and brought them to the embassy in Ankara.
“We are really grateful for the assistance provided by the Malaysian and Indonesian Embassy,” he said, adding that the main focus was to leave Gaziantep and go to safer ground.
“Even now, the tremor is still felt in Gaziantep every three hours. On the first day, we felt tremors every hour.
“Currently, we are on our semester break. It ends on Feb 20. If it is safe to return to university, I will go back, but if the university opts to go virtual, I will probably return to Malaysia and attend virtual lessons from home.”
Malaysian Ambassador to Turkiye Sazali Mustafa Kamal said the embassy was ready to assist Malaysians affected by the earthquake.
Malaysia is among the first country to respond to the disaster that hit Turkiye, with contributions to help victims of the earthquake and has since deployed the second Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) to the country.
The team flew to Turkiye last Monday.
