Former Chelsea star Christian Atsu has been found alive and rescued from the rubble of the Turkey earthquake after his voice was reportedly heard.
The 31-year-old Ghana ace is believed to have been on the ninth floor of an apartment block when two earthquakes rocked Turkey on early on Monday.
Atsu, who has three kids with wife Marie-Claire, plays for Hatayspor, who he joined last summer.
The earthquake hit hard in Kahramanmaras, where Hatayspor are based.
Video showed rescuers with search lights sifting through the wreckage of his apartment block during the night, The Sun reports.
According to local media reports, Atsu’s voice was heard in the rubble, along with that of Hatayspor’s Sporting Director Taner Savut.
Hatayspor spokesman Mustafa Ozat reportedly said: “Christian Atsu was taken out with injuries.
“Our sporting director, Taner Savut, is unfortunately still under the rubble.”
Ghana’s ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashitey-Odunton, said she’s received information from the country’s football authorities that Atsu “has been found”.
Several of his teammates were dramatically rescued from their homes after the earthquake struck at 4am local time.
Just hours before the quake struck Atsu scored deep into stoppage time on Saturday to secure a 1-0 win over Kasimpasa.
“Important win for the team. Happy to be on the scoresheet,” he tweeted.
Footage showed Atsu being mobbed by his teammates as ecstatic fans celebrated the win, along with messages praying for him to be found.
Newcastle and Chelsea were earlier anxiously awaiting news of their former player.
A post on Newcastle’s official Twitter account said: “Praying for some positive news, @ChristianAtsu20.”
While Chelsea tweeted: “We’re praying for you, Christian Atsu.”
Atsu joined Chelsea from Porto for £3.5million in 2013 but didn’t make a single appearance for the Premier League giants.
Atsu took in loans at Vitesse, Everton, Bournemouth, Malaga and Newcastle.
And the Magpies made his deal permanent in 2017 after Atsu played a key role in their promotion from the Championship.
The ace ended up making 86 appearances for Newcastle before joining Al-Raed in 2021.
Atsu moved to Hatayspor last summer and has one goal in four games.
Up to 10,000 are feared dead, including many children, after two “once-in-a-century” earthquakes rocked Turkey and Syria today.
A massive 7.8 magnitude shock – one of the biggest for 100 years – was followed hours later by another huge 7.5 magnitude quake.
Frantic survivors used their bare hands to dig through the rubble of flattened homes and were filmed pulling children to safety amid scenes of utter destruction.The twin earthquakes also sparked tsunami alerts on Mediterranean coasts in Greece, Cyprus and Italy, and shaking was felt as far away as Egypt and Iran.
— This story originally appeared on thesun.co.uk and has been republished with permission
