A week after an earthquake in Turkey and Syria killed more than 33,000 people, rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble, as the UN warned the toll could rise much higher.
The latest miracle is the rescue of a young boy and a 62-year-old woman after nearly seven days under the rubble of collapsed buildings from last Monday’s devastating earthquake.
Seven-year-old Mustafa was rescued in southeastern Turkey’s Hatay province and Nafis Yilmaz in Nurtaki, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported early Monday. The two were trapped for 163 hours before being rescued late Sunday.
Turkey’s disaster agency, along with 8,294 international rescuers, and more than 32,000 people from Turkish organizations are involved in search and rescue efforts.
A member of the British search team posted a remarkable video on Twitter on Sunday, showing a rescuer crawling through a tunnel created through the rubble to find Turkish people trapped in Hade for five days.
Search teams face a race against the clock as experts warn that more survivors could be found in the wreckage any day now.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has condemned the failure to send much-needed aid to war-torn parts of Syria. A convoy with supplies for northwest Syria arrived via Turkey, but UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said more was needed for the millions whose homes had been destroyed. “We have so far failed the people of northwest Syria. They feel abandoned. International help is not coming,” Griffiths said on Twitter.
A total of 12,141 buildings were leveled or severely damaged in Turkey, according to official reports. Officials and doctors said Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 29,605 people in Turkey and 3,581 in Syria.