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<\/div>\nMesut Hancer sat alone in the freezing cold on a pile of broken bricks that were once his home<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Kahramanmaras, Turkey: <\/b><\/p>\n
It was a moment encapsulating the unspeakable pain of the Turkish earthquake: a father holding his 15-year-old’s hand, the only thing visible after her body was crushed by concrete.<\/p>\n
Mesut Hancer sat alone in the freezing cold on a pile of broken bricks that were once his home, oblivious to the world and overwhelmed by grief.<\/p>\n
His daughter, Irmak, was dead. But he refused to let her go, caressing the fingers peeking out from a mattress the girl was asleep on when the first pre-dawn tremor struck on Monday.<\/p>\n
There were no rescue teams. Survivors were frantically clawing their way through the rubble to find loved ones, bits of their homes thrown out onto the debris-strewn street.<\/p>\n
Bedframes lay on top of shattered balconies. Torn clothes and toys told the tale of lives lost.<\/p>\n
It was too late for Irmak, one of nearly 20,000 people confirmed to have died in the most powerful earthquake to strike Turkey and Syria in nearly a century.<\/p>\n
But Adem Altan, a veteran photographer with AFP who rushed to the scene from Ankara, could not take his eyes off the still, silently mourning father.<\/p>\n
He trained his camera on Hancer from 60 metres (200 feet) away. It was a delicate moment. But instead of shooing Altan away, the father called him in.<\/p>\n
“Take pictures of my child,” Hancer called in a low, trembling voice.<\/p>\n
‘I was speechless’<\/strong><\/p>\n The father wanted the world to see his — and his nation’s — grief. And it did.<\/p>\n The AFP photograph appeared on the front pages of major newspapers across the world, including the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n “As I took photos, I was so sad. I kept repeating to myself, ‘what immense pain’. I couldn’t stop myself from crying,” Altan recalled.<\/p>\n “I was speechless.”<\/p>\n Altan asked Hancer his name and then his daughter’s name.<\/p>\n “He was speaking with difficulty, so I could not talk to him too much,” Altan said.<\/p>\n Altan could not ask too many questions because everyone needed to observe silence to hear whether there were survivors underneath the rubble.<\/p>\n A photographer for 40 years, including 15 with AFP, Altan knew that the photograph represented Turkey’s pain.<\/p>\n But its global impact surprised him. It has been shared hundreds of thousands of times online.<\/p>\n Altan has received thousands of messages from people worldwide, wanting to offer support.<\/p>\n “Many told me they will never forget this image,” he said.<\/p>\n (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nFeatured Video Of The Day<\/h3>\n