HATAY,&nbsp;Turkey&nbsp;(Reuters) - Peering out from under a large slab of concrete&nbsp;and&nbsp;brick, Abdulalim Muaini gestures weakly at&nbsp;his&nbsp;rescuers. It has been over two days since a massive&nbsp;earthquake&nbsp;brought&nbsp;his&nbsp;home in Hatay,&nbsp;Turkey, tumbling down upon him.
Close beside him lies&nbsp;his&nbsp;wife Esra. The rescue has come too late for her.
Reuters photographer Umit Bektas was on the second day of&nbsp;his&nbsp;assignment in Hatay, one of the places hardest-hit by the 7.8 magnitude&nbsp;earthquake&nbsp;that has killed more than 11,500 people across southern&nbsp;Turkey&nbsp;and&nbsp;northern Syria.
Heading towards one of the city's most damaged neighbourhoods, he asked the search&nbsp;and&nbsp;rescue volunteers the same question he had asked countless times: Did you reach anybody alive?
This&nbsp;time, they said yes: they had found Abdulalim.
Abdulalim's legs were trapped underneath concrete but he was conscious&nbsp;and&nbsp;able to talk to&nbsp;his&nbsp;rescuers.
Umit was unable to speak directly with Abdulalim, but two of&nbsp;his&nbsp;friends were standing nearby. They said Abdulalim was of Syrian origin, from Homs. He had fled the civil war&nbsp;and&nbsp;married Esra, a Turkish woman. The couple had two daughters, Mahsen&nbsp;and&nbsp;Besira, they said. It was unclear what had happened to the girls.
Rescues can take a long time&nbsp;and&nbsp;some hours later Umit returned, where he eventually saw Abdulalim being pulled out of the rubble. He was covered in grey dust, one eye was swollen, he was dehydrated&nbsp;and&nbsp;needed medical attention. But he&nbsp;survived.
His&nbsp;family&nbsp;did not. On the ground lay three bodies wrapped in blankets - Esra, Mahsen,&nbsp;and&nbsp;Besira.
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(Photography&nbsp;and&nbsp;reporting by Umit Bektas; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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