Miracle rescues continue as death toll surges in devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake

(MENAFN) The rescue efforts continue a week after the earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, killing over 33,000 people and leaving many more injured and displaced. The United Nations has warned that the death toll is expected to rise significantly. Despite the devastation and loss, there have been several miraculous rescues in the past few days, with the latest being a young boy and a 62-year-old woman who were pulled from the rubble of collapsed buildings after being trapped for nearly seven days.

Turkey's disaster agency reported that over 32,000 people from Turkish organizations and 8,294 international rescuers were working tirelessly on the search and rescue mission. One member of a British search team shared a remarkable video on social media that showed a rescuer crawling through a tunnel created in the rubble to reach a Turkish man who had been trapped for five days in the province of Hatay.

As the days pass, the chances of finding survivors dwindle, making the search and rescue efforts even more critical. In the city of Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the quake, excavators were working to clear mountains of rubble as a rescue team recovered a body from the debris. However, many rescue teams have reported a lack of advanced search equipment and sensors, leaving them with limited options for searching through the rubble, relying only on shovels and their bare hands.

"If we had this kind of equipment, we would have saved hundreds of lives, if not more," said Alaa Moubarak, head of civil defence in Jableh, northwest Syria. These statements highlight the importance of having proper resources and equipment in disaster response efforts and the devastating impact that a lack of resources can have on the outcomes of rescue missions.

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