Rescuers Scramble to Find Survivors in Turkey, Syria Quake Ruins

By Staff, Agencies

Rescue workers in Turkey and Syria are racing against time in freezing cold conditions to find survivors under flattened buildings after Monday’s devastating earthquake that left more than 7,100 people dead – and hopes of finding more people alive are fading fast.

In Gaziantep, one of the most affected regions near the epicenter of the quake in Turkey’s southeast, rescuers continued to break down the rubble of collapsed buildings on Tuesday to check for anyone alive but trapped. It is a difficult task for search and rescuers who are working in harsh conditions and without sufficient equipment.

It is difficult to distinguish between the shouts from the rescue teams – whether they are screams of relief from finding a survivor or screams of horror as the death toll continues to rise.

Many of those who did survive but lost their homes don’t have places to go, hungry and cold, coming together to share blankets and gather around burning debris to stay warm. Meanwhile, Turkish authorities are still warning of aftershocks, sparking concerns that the tragedy won’t cease anytime soon.

But some extraordinary survival tales have emerged, including a newborn baby pulled alive from rubble in Syria, still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother who died in the quake.

"We heard a voice while we were digging," Khalil al-Suwadi, a relative, told AFP. "We cleared the dust and found the baby with the umbilical cord [intact], so we cut it and my cousin took her to the hospital."

The infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family, the rest of whom were killed in the town of Jindires.

Despite dozens of nations pledging their support and aid, people in some of the hardest-hit areas said they felt like they had been left to fend for themselves.

A winter storm has compounded the misery by rendering many roads – some of them damaged by the quake – almost impassable, resulting in traffic jams that stretch for miles in some regions. The cold rain and snow are a risk both for people forced from their homes – who took refuge in mosques, schools, or even bus shelters – and survivors buried under debris.