“It was very traumatic, a great destruction.” This is how Nebi Mucaj, director of the volunteer Civil Emergencies center, begins his story for Euronews Albania after returning from Malatia, one of the areas most affected by the February 6 earthquake that hit southern Turkey.

For 7 days, together with Shkelzen, Bujar and other members of the volunteer center of the Albanian Civil Emergencies, they searched under the rubble and ruins. They were looking for life, but fate wanted them to find only victims and these moments are still fresh in their memories.

“We found only victims… I was spiritually killed when we found father and son who were still hugging eachother; the father above him, the child below. Then I lost it, I cried, the Turkish soldiers helped me, I couldn’t take it anymore”, says Bujar Rrapo, part of the team of volunteers.

“It was very painful not to give hope that you could get people out alive, but it was impossible,” Shkelzen Shatri, part of the team of volunteers in Malatia, confesses.

Hope was not extinguished. And every day began with prayers for life. “People who were sitting in silence, digging in these ruins where the hope was: here we will find a life”, says Muçaj.

The mission in Malatia was closed, but for the volunteers who served, they took the pain with them.

“I am back with a broken heart; I left half of the pain in Turkey and took the other half with me”, says Nebi Mucaj, director of the volunteer center for Civil Emergencies.

In Malatia, 280 5-story buildings were destroyed and hundreds of victims were recorded.