Turkey, Syria earthquake: Newborn, mother rescued from collapsed building as death toll rises

As crews continued to dig through the mounds of concrete, metal and other rubble caused by this week’s earthquake, they discovered a miracle.

A newborn baby and his mother were found alive in a collapsed building in Turkey.

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Baby Yagiz Ulas, 10 days old, was passed from rescuer to rescuer. He was alive and his eyes were open wide as he was carefully carried from the rubble wrapped in a thermal blanket and taken to a field medical center in Samandag, Hatay province, Reuters reported.

Yagiz’s mother was also pulled from the building’s remains. She was in a daze and pale, but was conscious, according to Reuters.

Yagiz has spent half of his extremely young life trapped in the fallout from the earthquake, the Evening Standard reported.

More than 21,000 people were killed when an earthquake rocked the region in Turkey and Syria.

At least seven children and several adults were rescued Friday.

In Kahramanmaras, Turkey, a toddler was trapped in an air pocket, but rescue crews were able to get to him and pull him from the rubble, a video released by the Turkish defense ministry showed. Another child could be heard crying for help Friday morning as crews used drills and grinders to cut the broken masonry that trapped him, Reuters reported. About 103 hours after the earthquake hit, the boy was freed, along with his mother.

In Syria, a little girl wearing pink pajamas was pulled alive from a mound of plaster and cement that rescuers used their bare hands to dig through to free her.

More than 110,000 people are in the region trying to help survivors and recover remains, according to Turkey’s disaster-management agency, the Evening Standard reported. In addition, more than 5,500 vehicles — tractors, cranes, bulldozers and excavators — have been deployed. Help has been offered from 95 countries.

Entire neighborhoods are gone and are now just piles of metal, concrete and wires. Despite still finding survivors five days after the 7.8 earthquake hit, hopes are starting to dim that more survivors will be found, The Associated Press reported.

Experts said that trapped people can survive for a week or more but the clock is ticking as rescuers are dealing not only with the wreckage but also freezing temperatures in an area where survivors now have little to no shelter, the AP reported.

“At night, about 4 a.m., it got so cold that our drinking water froze,” Mustafa Turan said, according to the AP. Fifteen of Turan’s family were killed in the quake and he said that those who survived are living outside in tents.

About 12,000 buildings were either seriously damaged or destroyed in Turkey. Engineers said it wasn’t just the quake that caused them to fall, but also little to no enforcement of building codes. Despite years of warnings that the buildings would fail in an earthquake, the warnings were ignored, some alleged, because it would have been expensive and unpopular politically to fix the issues, the AP reported.

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Turkey/Syria earthquake ELBISTAN, TURKEY - FEBRUARY 09: A rescue dog smells the debris of a ruined building while search and rescue operations continue on February 9, 2023 in Elbistan Turkey. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit near Gaziantep, Turkey, in the early hours of Monday, followed by another 7.5-magnitude tremor just after midday. The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and were felt in nearby countries. (Photo by Mehmet Kacmaz/Getty Images) (Mehmet Kacmaz/Getty Images)