Children rescued after more than 180 hours under rubble in Turkey – but earthquake survivors struggle for aid

Rescuers in Turkey have pulled several children alive from collapsed buildings, a week after the country’s worst earthquake in modern history, but such instances are becoming rarer.

In one city, rescuers were digging a tunnel to reach a grandmother, mother and daughter, all from one family, who appeared to have survived the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and aftershock that have killed more than 37,000 in Turkey and Syria.

But others were bracing for the inevitable scaling down of operations as low temperatures reduced the already slim chances of survival with some Polish rescuers announcing they would leave on Wednesday.

In the shattered Syrian city of Aleppo, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the rescue phase was “coming to a close”, with the focus switching to shelter, food and schooling.

In a sign of hope, a 13-year-old, identified only by his first name, Kaan, was pulled out alive after spending 182 hours under the rubble of a collapsed building in Turkey’s southern Hatay province on Monday, his head braced, and covered for warmth, before he was moved into an ambulance. A young girl named Miray was recovered alive in the southeastern Turkish city of Adiyaman, officials said, while state broadcaster TRT Haber said a 10-year-old girl was rescued in the southern Turkish province of Kahramanmaras.

At least two other children and three adults were also reported to have been rescued.

In one dramatic rescue attempt in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, rescuers said they had contact with a grandmother, mother and baby trapped in a room in the remains of three-storey building. Rescuers were digging a second tunnel to reach them after a first route was blocked.

“I have a very strong feeling we are going to get them,” said Burcu Baldauf, head of the Turkish voluntary healthcare team. “It’s already a miracle. After seven days, they are there with no water, no food and in good condition.”

On the same street, emergency workers covered a body in a black bag. “This is your brother,” one grieving woman said, with another wailing. “No, no.”

The Turkish toll now exceeds the 31,643 killed in a quake in 1939, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said, making it the worst quake in Turkey’s modern history.

The total death toll in Syria, a nation ravaged by more than a decade of civil war, is approaching 6,000 including those who have died in both rebel-held and government-held areas.

Turkey faces a bill of up to $84.1bn (£69.3bn), a business group said.

Dozens of residents and overwhelmed first responders have expressed bewilderment at a lack of water, food, medicine, body bags and cranes in disaster zones, with many criticising an overly slow and centralised response by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

“God knows what will happen next,” said Ismail Yuvarlak. He said he was living in a tent after his house in Kahramanmaras had been condemned by authorities who in his words had left his family to figure things out on their own.

The International Monetary Fund called for an international effort to help Syria, where the rebel-held northwest has received little aid. Only one crossing from Turkey into Syria is now open for aid from the United Nations, although the UN says it hopes to open two more.

Aid from government-held regions to areas controlled by hardline opposition groups has been held up. A source from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group which controls much of the region, told Reuters the group would not let in shipments from government-held areas and aid would come from Turkey.

There was growing frustration among aid workers and civilians in Syria’s rebel-held areas.

“We called from the early days of the catastrophe on the U.N. to intervene immediately,” the head of the Turkey-backed opposition coalition Salem al Muslet said. “The UN wants to exonerate itself from letting down the liberated areas.”

Reuters