As a series of earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, claiming more than 5,000 lives, several stories of hope amid the gloom have emerged during rescue operations. In a miraculous incident, a baby reportedly born under the remains of a collapsed building was rescued in Syria even though the mother failed to survive the ordeal.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media, with netizens calling the newborn “miracle baby”.
The baby’s recovery was one of the thousands of rescues across Turkey and Syria, as rescue workers worked round the clock through freezing temperatures and unrelenting rainfall.
Disclaimer: AP LIVE cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video.
A report in Daily Mail said the baby’s mother, who had been displaced from Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor region, went into labour in the aftermath of the 7.8 eartquake on Monday. However, both the parents could not survive the earthquake’s impact.
The video shows a rescuer running with the newborn in his arms amid wreckage and destruction all around. The incident took place in Jenderes, in the countryside of Afrin, northeast Syria.
The baby, whose umbilical cord was still attached as rescue teams carried her out of her collapsed home, was rushed to a nearby hospital.
READ | Turkey: President Erdogan Declares State Of Emergency In 10 Quake-Hit Provinces
In another incident in the Syrian village of Qatma, Ahmed, a child of about four or five years old, was rescued after being trapped under a giant, concrete slab after his home crumbled when the earthquake struck in the early hours of Monday morning as he slept in his bed.
The initial quake was followed on Monday afternoon by another with a 7.7 magnitude. Thirty minutes later another temblor of magnitude 6 struck Turkey. On Tuesday, a fourth 5.7 earthquake struck eastern Turkey.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, could be affected by the earthquakes.
The death toll in both the countries climbed past 5,000 on Tuesday, with many more believed to be missing beneath the flattened buildings as dozens of countries deployed rescue teams to assist in the search.
