UK Edition
A baby girl was rescued after being born under the rubble of her home, which collapsed in the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria on Monday.
The dust-covered newborn was pulled from the wreckage of a four-story apartment building in the small town of Jindayris more than 10 hours after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in rebel-held northern Syria.
“Had the girl been left for an hour more, she would have died,” said Dr Hanu Maarouf, who is caring for the baby.
Her rescuers were members of her extended family, who found her still tied to her mother by the umbilical cord. The earthquake killed her mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya, her father, Abdullah, four siblings and an aunt.
A spokesman for UNICEF warned that “thousands of children” may have been killed after the most powerful earthquake in Syria and Turkey for almost a century.
Three British nationals were reported missing after at least 6,200 people were killed in Turkey and Syria, where thousands are still waiting for rescue workers to arrive. Authorities said 4,544 people have died in Turkey and 1,712 in Syria, bringing the total to 6,256.
The baby, who suffered cuts and bruises, was rushed to a children’s hospital in the nearby town of Afrin, and placed in an incubator. The Telegraph understands that she is getting better by the hour and her other relatives are with her. Her condition is stable and she is in an incubator.
Video footage of her escape from certain death on Monday afternoon went viral on social media on Tuesday.
The footage showed a man sprinting from the rubble clutching the baby. A second man brought a blanket to protect her from the sub-zero temperatures, while a third screamed for a car to take her to hospital.
Rescue efforts have been further hampered by aftershocks. One on Monday was almost as powerful as the first earthquake, with a 7.6 magnitude, and on Tuesday a tremor was reported in central Anatolia in Turkey.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, who has been criticised for his response to the disaster, said 13 million of the country’s 85 million people had been affected. Mr Erdogan, who faces elections in June, declared a state of emergency in the 10 affected provinces for at least three months.
More than 8,000 people have been rescued from the debris in Turkey alone, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, said Fuat Oktay, the vice president.
They huddled in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres, while others spent the night outside in blankets gathering around fires.
King Charles told the Turkish president he was “shocked and profoundly saddened” by “these dreadful tragedies”.
On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak pledged support to those affected by the “incredibly tragic situation” in Turkey and Syria “as quickly as possible”.
Rescue teams started to trickle into Hatay, a badly affected Turkish province on the border with Syria where many locals say they have not received help or seen a single emergency worker.
The building that houses the region’s disaster management agency has collapsed. The local airport is badly damaged, making it even harder to get help.
Lutfu Savas, the governor of Hatay, said nearly 2,000 buildings, including three hospitals and the City Hall and the firefighters’ department, had been destroyed.
At Iskenderun hospital in the province, survivors peered through the wreckage, searching for signs of life.
“I’m devastated. I see bodies inside, everywhere. Although I’m used to seeing bodies because of my expertise, it’s very difficult for me,” said Dr Deveci, who worked at the hospital. At least 15 patients were reported to be stuck inside the building, which could not be accessed by rescuers.
Authorities said a huge fire that engulfed shipping containers at Iskerdun port had been put out, but had no word on when the port would return to operations.
Thirty-six hours after the first quake struck, there are still entire towns and villages in Turkey that have not seen first responders. People there have been forced to take matters into their own hands.
“My dad decided to call his builders and dig it out ourselves,” Baris Yapar, a student who was staying with his parents in the coastal town of Samandag, told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Mr Yapar’s grandparents were trapped in their building on Monday morning and have not been heard from since.
On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates pledged $100 million to aid the relief effort, one of the largest sums to date. Saudi Arabia, which severed diplomatic ties with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad in 2012, also said it would provide assistance.