08 February 2023 , 12:07
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A dad has described the moment his "blood froze" when he saw his wife and newborn hit by the Turkey earthquake on his baby cam 535 miles away.
Lemi, who provides security for Hull City owner Acun Ilicali, was safe in Istanbul when the first quake began but his wife Victoria and their baby daughter Katelyn were in the city of Adana, near the epicentre.
Over 9,500 people have died and tens of thousands more are injured and missing. Plus there are still daily tremors causing thousands of families' homes to crumble.
Describing the video, he told Hull Live: “You hear a big bang. The baby wakes up and the dog was barking 10-15 seconds prior to it. Vicky wakes up and grabs Katelyn and runs downstairs.
Video grab of Katelyn in her cot as the earthquake struck Turkey (Hull Live WS)"You can hear the whole building squeaking and that tapping noise. When you watch it your blood freezes."
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Lemi hired a car as soon as he saw what had happened and began the 12-hour drive south.
He describes horrifying scenes of devastation: “In three different locations, I witnessed incidents where 20-30 vehicles were crashed and there were bodies everywhere. It was terrible."
The family reunited and safe together (HullLive/MEN Media)He managed to reach Adana safely and then took his wife and the grandparents to the city of Mersin on the coast where things are "slightly better".
He, Victoria, and Katelyn are trying to stay warm and fed in Mersin but said: “Constantly there are ambulances and rescue services passing by.
"Some of the petrol stations have run out of fuel because people are panic buying.
Yigit Cakmak, 8-year-old survivor at the site of a collapsed building (Getty Images)“You can't really get bread. Not many shops have got bread. According to the intelligence, with the contacts I have, they are switching the main petrol pipes off to protect from future earthquakes if that happens, which they predict will happen, so there won't be any petrol for a while so everyone's filling their tanks and panicking.
“Mersin is normally a summer place but right now it's raining and it’s quite cold. Istanbul is snowing and the middle of Turkey is snowing. The weather conditions make it ten times worse.”
Lemi and Victoria plan to buy blankets, baby bodysuits, and nappies for victims once they have gathered a "decent amount of money" on a Go Fund Me set up by their friends.