Heartbreaking moment when a sobbing child and his family are pulled from the wreckage of the earthquake in Syria
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Heartbreaking moment a sobbing child and baby are among family members brought to safety two days after an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria and left them buried in the rubble of their homes
Footage has captured the heartbreaking moment a sobbing child and baby were pulled from the rubble after the devastating earthquake in Syria.
Heroic rescuers were filmed desperately digging through the debris to reach several young children and family members.
Survivors were reportedly buried under the rubble of their home in Jindires, Aleppo, in northern Syria, where the worst damage was felt.
Syrian civil defense workers were filmed calling frantically in the dark, damp remains of the building.
The team is then seen finding a child whose lower half is trapped under bricks and rubble – his head appears to be covered in blood.
More and more workers are also scrambling to lift bricks from another child’s body, with one person feeling their wrist to check their pulse.
Amid screams and moans, the camera pans back to a flailing hand – the only body part visible from a pile of rubble.
As rescuers continue to pick up debris with their bare hands, a child begins to sob and cough.
But soon after, they are lifted up alongside another child, a baby and a man on a stretcher.
A rescue worker checks the pulse of a child trapped under the rubble of a house in Syria
As workers pick up debris with their bare hands, a child begins to sob and cough
The footage comes after more than 7,800 people were killed in the 7.8 magnitude quake and its aftermath, with 5,894 dead in Turkey and at least 1,932 in Syria.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) warns the toll could climb to as many as 20,000 amid efforts to save those still trapped under the rubble.
More than 23 million people could also be affected in the two countries, according to WHO estimates.
Earlier this evening, a team of 77 search and rescue specialists, state-of-the-art equipment and four dogs arrived in Turkey from the UK.
The plane arrived in the city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey to help ongoing rescue efforts.
American teams will also arrive tomorrow in the southeastern province of Adiyaman to focus on urban search and rescue following the tragedy.
But aid to quake-hit Syria has been slowed by sanctions and damage to the only border crossing used to deliver aid from Turkey to the country.
A key issue complicating the dispersal of aid is “the war and the way aid response is distributed between rebel areas and Damascus,” said Aron Lund, a member of New York-based think tank Century. International that studies Syria.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, said: “It is imperative that everyone views this as a humanitarian crisis where lives are at stake.” Please don’t politicize this. Let’s get help to those who desperately need it.