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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“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
An audacious Ukrainian drone attack against multiple airbases across Russia is a humiliating security breach for Vladimir Putin that will doubtless trigger a furious response.
Pro-Kremlin bloggers have described the drone assault – which Ukrainian security sources said hit more than 40 Russian warplanes – as “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” in reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War.
Ukraine war latest: Russia accuses Kyiv of ‘terrorist attack’
The Ukrainian operation – which used small drones smuggled into Russia, hidden in mobile sheds and launched off the back of trucks – also demonstrated how technology and imagination have transformed the battlefield, enabling Ukraine to seriously hurt its far more powerful opponent.
Moscow will have to retaliate, with speculation already appearing online about whether President Putin will again threaten the use of nuclear weapons.
“We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even harsher,” military blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Codenamed ‘Spider’s Web’, the mission on Sunday was the culmination of one and a half years of planning, according to a security source.
In that time, Ukraine’s secret service smuggled first-person view (FPV) drones into Russia, sources with knowledge of the operation said.
Flat-pack, garden-office style sheds were also secretly transported into the country.
The drones were hidden in truck containers. Pic: SBU Security Service
The oblong sheds were then built and drones were hidden inside, before the containers were put on the back of trucks and driven to within range of their respective targets.
At a chosen time, doors on the roofs of the huts were opened remotely and the drones were flown out. Each was armed with a bomb that was flown into the airfields, with videos released by the security service that purportedly showed them blasting into Russian aircraft.
These drones were used to destroy Russian bomber aircraft. Pic: SBU Security Service
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Among the targets were Tu-95 and Tu-22 bomber aircraft that can launch cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian side. An A-50 airborne early warning aircraft was also allegedly hit. This is a valuable platform that is used to command and control operations.
The use of such simple technology to destroy multi-million-pound aircraft will be watched with concern by governments around the world.
Suddenly, every single military base, airfield and warship will appear that little bit more vulnerable if any truck nearby could be loaded with killer drones.
Read more:
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The most immediate focus, though, will be on how Mr Putin responds.
Previous attacks by Ukraine inside Russia have triggered retaliatory strikes and increasingly threatening rhetoric from the Kremlin.
But this latest operation is one of the biggest and most significant, and comes on the eve of a new round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv that are meant to take place in Turkey. It is not clear if that will still happen.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for the two sides to make peace but Russia has only escalated its war.
Ukraine clearly felt it had nothing to lose but to also go on the attack.
Two people are dead and nearly 560 people were arrested after disorder broke out in France following Paris Saint-Germain’s victory in the Champions League final, the French interior ministry has said.
The ministry added 192 people were injured and there were 692 fires, including 264 involving vehicles.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the city of Dax during a PSG street party after Saturday night’s final in Munich, the national police service said.
The second person killed was a man who was hit by a car while riding a scooter during PSG celebrations, the interior minister’s office said.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez has said the man was in his 20s and although the incident is still being investigated, it appears his death was linked to the disorder.
Meanwhile, French authorities have reported that a police officer is in a coma following the clashes.
A burning bike on the Champs Elysees during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
The officer had been hit by a firecracker that emerged from a crowd of supporters in Coutances in the Manche department of northwestern France, according to reports in the country.
Initial investigations reportedly suggest the incident was accidental and the police officer was not deliberately targeted.
The perpetrator has not been identified.
A man walks past teargas during incidents after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan. Pic: AP
A burning bike on the Champs Elysees during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
The interior ministry earlier said 22 security forces workers were injured during the chaos – including 18 who were injured in Paris, along with seven firefighters.
In a news conference today, Mr Nuñez said only nine of the force’s officers had been injured in the French capital.
He added that fireworks were directed at police and firefighters were attacked while responding to car fires.
There were 559 arrests across the country during the disorder, including 491 in Paris. Of those detained across the country, 320 were taken into police custody – with 254 in the French capital.
Mr Nuñez said although most people wanted to celebrate PSG’s win, some only wanted to get involved in fights with police.
He also said the force is only at “half-time” in its response because the PSG team will be celebrating their Champions League victory on the Champs Élysées later today.
Police in Paris during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
Police in Paris during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
Mr Nuñez said that the police presence and military presence in Paris will be increased on the ground for the parade.
It comes after flares and fireworks were set off in the French capital after PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich – the biggest ever victory in a Champions League final.
Around 5,400 police were deployed across Paris after the game, with officers using tear gas and pepper spray on the Champs Élysées.
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At the top of the Champs Élysées, a water cannon was used to protect the Place de l’Etoile, near the landmark Arc de Triomphe.
Police said a large crowd not watching the match tried to push through a barrier to make contact with officers.
Some 131 arrests were made, including 30 who broke into a shoe shop on the Champs Élysées.
Police have said a total of four shops, including a car dealership and a barbers, were targeted during the disorder in Paris.
Two cars were set alight close to Parc des Princes, police said.
PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé appealed for calm in a post-match interview with Canal+, saying: “Let’s celebrate this but not tear everything up in Paris.”
Pics: AP
After the final played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, thousands of supporters also tried to rush the field.
Police lined up in front of the PSG end of the stadium at the final whistle, but struggled to contain the fans for several minutes when they came down from the stands following the trophy presentation.
Pics: AP
Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old who scored two goals and assisted one in the final, said after the game: “I don’t have words. But what I can say is, ‘Thank you Paris,’ we did it.”
Despite being a supporter of PSG’s rivals Olympique de Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron also said on social media: “A glorious day for PSG!
“Bravo, we are all proud. Paris, the capital of Europe this evening.”
Mr Macron’s office said the president would receive the players at the Elysee Palace on Sunday.
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Three patients have been killed and dozens of other people were reportedly injured after a fire at a hospital in Germany.
The blaze broke out in a room in the geriatric ward of the Marienkrankenhaus early on Sunday.
It started on the ground floor and spread to the level above, with smoke affecting much of the four-storey building in the city of Hamburg.
Firefighters were alerted soon after midnight.
They said they found several patients calling for help from windows, and some people were rescued using ladders.
Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
Three adults died and more than 30 were injured in the fire, the German news agency dpa said.
One of the injured is in a life-threatening condition, while 18 have serious injuries and 15 have minor injuries, the agency added.
Read more from Sky News:
Two dead and hundreds of arrests in France after PSG win
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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Part of the building had to be evacuated, though the wounded were mostly treated at the hospital.
Two injured people were taken to other nearby clinics.
The blaze was put out within about 20 minutes. The cause is not yet known.
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