Heart-wrenching footage has captured the moment rescue workers gave a little boy water with a bottle cap before pulling him out of wreckage nearly 45 hours after the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
The young child, named as Muhammed Ahmed from Syria, had been trapped underneath rubble following the 7.8 magnitude quake since the early hours of Monday.
Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu shared a clip on Twitter of the hard-to-watch moment.
“Well done Muhammed. Our search and rescue team rescued Syrian citizen Muhammed Ahmed from the rubble in Antakya,” he said.
The video shows the dehydrated little boy drinking water out of the bottle cap, carefully given to him by a rescue worker, as he was trapped underneath rubble from the neck down and unable to use his arms.
He can be heard crying in between sips as he signals for more water.
Stretched rescue teams have toiled through Turkey and Syria in a bid to find more signs of life in the aftermath of one of the world’s deadliest earthquakes in more than a decade.
Ilan Kelman, professor of Disasters and Health at University College London, said the window for post-earthquake search-and-rescue is “rapidly closing”.
Image: An eight-year-old boy is pulled out from the rubble in Hatay, Turkey
“Typically, few survivors are pulled out after 72 hours – yet every life saved is essential and some people are extricated after many days,” he said.
“Time is always the enemy, as seen in Turkey and Syria. People die due to immediate medical needs such as bleeding to death or succumbing to crush injuries; due to aftershocks that collapse precarious structures with people underneath.”
He added that many people could die from hypothermia due to the plummeting temperatures or lack of food and water while awaiting rescue.
Search teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in the mass rescue operation – while aid pledges have poured in from around the world.
In the Turkish city of Malatya, bodies were placed side by side on the ground, covered in blankets, while rescuers waited for funeral vehicles to pick them up, according to former journalist Ozel Pikal, who saw eight bodies pulled from the ruins of building.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:54
Drone shows quake impact in Syrian town
Mr Pikal, who took part in the rescue efforts, believes some of the victims have frozen to death as temperatures dipped to -6C.
“Today isn’t a pleasant day because as of today there is no hope left in Malatya,” he said. “No one is coming out alive from the rubble.”
He said a hotel building collapsed in the city and more than 100 people could be trapped, and there is a shortage of rescuers in the area, while the cold has slowed down rescue efforts by volunteers and government teams.
Road closures and widespread damage in the region have also affected mobility and access.
“Our hands cannot pick up anything because of the cold,” Mr Pikal said. “Work machines are needed.”
Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.
While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.
The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.
Image: US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters
Trump holds trade deal talks – reports
It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indianand Israelirepresentatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.
The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.
Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.
Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.
Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
6:50
Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Image: Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
Image: The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.