Six days after the earthquake, more babies were rescued from the rubble in Turkey and Syria as the death toll reached 33,000
Rescuers continued to pull children alive from rubble in Turkey and Syria yesterday – six days after the devastating earthquakes.
At least 33,000 people have died and another 93,000 have been injured since two powerful tremors – one measuring 7.8 magnitude – shook the border region between the two countries on Monday.
Experts fear the final death toll could surpass 50,000, but amazingly over the weekend young people as young as seven months old were pulled from the ruins of collapsed buildings, some of which have survived up to 150 hours underground.
Among the young survivors was ten-year-old Cudi, who was pulled from a narrow hole in the southern Turkish province of Hatay. According to Istanbul Municipality, she was buried for 147 hours.
Elsewhere in the same province, seven-month-old baby Hamza was pulled out of the rubble on Saturday. Video footage shows the boy’s rescuers cheering and hugging.
A two-year-old was rescued from the rubble yesterday after 150 hours and given an oxygen mask to help her breathe
A baby rescued from rubble 128 hours after magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria
And yesterday a two-year-old was rescued from the rubble and given an oxygen mask to help her breathe.
Rescuers wrapped the child in foil and blankets to protect her from the cold, and a band-aid was placed over a wound on her forehead.
Elsewhere in central Hatay, a man and his five-year-old daughter, named Emira, were also rescued from a destroyed building. And video released by Turkey’s Health Ministry showed another young child, covered in bruises and lying on a stretcher, covered in dust and bruises.
It is not known how young the child was or how long he was underground.
Access to water and air to breathe are two critical factors that can determine how long a person can survive trapped in rubble. Cold weather is also believed to have helped as it slows dehydration, which would be far more severe in hotter conditions. Adnan Muhammed Korkut, a 17-year-old rescued from a basement near the epicenter of the quake in Gaziantep, was forced to drink his own urine to stay alive.
Three children rescued from under rubble are taken to hospital by military helicopter
People wait for news from their relatives near where buildings collapsed after a powerful earthquake in Adiyaman, southeastern Turkey
dr Jarone Lee, an emergency and disaster medicine expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: “Usually it’s rare to find survivors past the fifth to seventh day, and most search and rescue teams will consider stopping by then. But there are many stories of people who far survived the seven-day mark.
“Unfortunately, these are usually rare and exceptional cases.”
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials are already targeting renegade builders for failing to ensure buildings would withstand such an event. Arrest warrants have been issued for 131 people – both contractors and local officials – who run a corrupt system in which building standards were bypassed to ensure a construction boom.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag confirmed that prosecutors have already started collecting samples for evidence. And yesterday two people were arrested in Gaziantep for allegedly cutting down pillars to make room in a collapsed building.