Turkey-Syria earthquake: Newborn baby, family of six and married couple among those saved from beneath rubble
A newborn baby and a family of six are among those to defy the odds and be pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey days after the devastating earthquake.
The rescues come as hopes fade of finding more survivors following Monday’s 7.8 magnitude tremor, in the face of freezing temperatures.
Earthquake latest – Turkey refuses aid from Cyprus
Stories have been emerging of extraordinary human resilience in the face of adversity.
Family of six survives 101 hours under rubble
A woman and her family survived by huddling together in an air pocket
A husband, wife and their four children were rescued after spending 101 hours trapped beneath the debris.
The family managed to survive by huddling together in a small air pocket beneath a collapsed building in Iskenderun, Hatay province.
The tower block was only 600ft from the Mediterranean and the earthquake caused the sea to rise and flood the city centre to within feet of where they were trapped.
Newborn baby rescued
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10-day-old baby rescued after 90 hours
A 10-day-old baby was pulled from the rubble along with her mother 90 hours after catastrophe struck.
The infant, named as Yagiz Ulas, was found by search and rescue teams in Hatay province, according to officials.
Married couple saved
There was relief as Haci Murat Kilinc and his wife, Raziye, were freed. Pic: AP
Rescue workers wept with relief as a married couple who spent 109 hours buried within a small crevice in the rubble were freed.
There were shouts of “God is great” as Haci Murat Kilinc and his wife, Raziye, were carried through a crowd on stretchers to a waiting ambulance in Iskenderun.
One rescue worker said Mr Kilinc had joked with the search team while still trapped beneath the rubble, trying to boost their morale.
He also requested cigarettes and tea while still buried, but had to be refused.
Joy as teenager found
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Tears as teen rescued after 94 hours
Near the epicentre of the quake in the city of Gaziantep, emergency workers rescued Adnan Muhammed Korkut from the basement where had been trapped since the quake.
Trapped for 94 hours, the 17-year-old said he had been forced to drink his own urine to survive.
He smiled at the crowd of friends and relatives who cried tears of joy as he was carried out and placed on a stretcher.
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Why was the destruction to buildings in Turkey so catastrophic?
Gruesome, technical work: How an earthquake search and rescue mission is conducted
Which countries have offered to help Turkey and Syria and what aid are they providing?
“Thank God you arrived,” he said, embracing his mother and others who leaned down to kiss and hug him as he was put into an ambulance.
“Thank you everyone.”
A rescue worker called Yasemin, told him: “I have a son just like you.
“I swear to you, I have not slept for four days. I swear I did not sleep; I was trying to get you out.”
Dramatic rescues
Rescuers saved 20-year-old Ibrahim Kantrji, in Kahramanmaras
Dramatic rescues were also reported elsewhere, including in the city of Antakya, where crews saved a 10-year-old girl.
Search teams also found a 20-year-old survivor Ibrahim Kantrji in Kahramanmaras, while Eyup Ak, 60, was pulled to safety in Adiyaman, 104 hours after the earthquake.
Eyup Ak, 60, was trapped for 104 hours. Pic:AP
‘Disaster of the century’
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called it “the disaster of the century”.
With morgues and cemeteries overwhelmed, dead bodies lie wrapped in blankets, rugs and tarpaulins in the streets of some cities.
The Turkish authorities said more than 19,000 people had been confirmed killed in the disaster so far in Turkey, with nearly 75,000 injured.
Some 3,384 have been confirmed killed on the other side of the border in Syria, bringing the total number of dead to more than 22,000.
The total outstrips the more than 18,400 who died in the 2011 earthquake off Fukushima, Japan, that triggered a tsunami and the estimated 18,000 people who died in a tremor near Istanbul in 1999.
‘They’ll die from the cold’
Meanwhile, in the city of Antakya, people scrambled for supplies being distributed from a lorry.
One survivor, Ahmet Tokgoz, called for the government to evacuate people from the region.
He said: “Especially in this cold, it is not possible to live here.
“If people haven’t died from being stuck under the rubble, they’ll die from the cold.”
The winter weather and damage to roads and airports have hampered the rescue effort.
The Turkish government has been criticised for being too slow to respond.
There will be a special programme called Disaster Zone: The Turkey-Syria Earthquake on Sky News on Friday evening at 9.30pm
World
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
Read more:
Azerbaijan president hails oil and gas as ‘gift from God’
UN climate summits ‘no longer fit for purpose’
The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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