FRANTIC FIND IN QUAKE RUBBLE
Syrian boy a much-needed miracle as horror toll rises
Dramatic video showed rescuers in northwestern Syria using a pickax, a jackhammer and a torch to rescue a young boy lodged in the ruins of his collapsed home after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the region early Monday, killing at least 3,700 people.
The stunning video of the rescue shows Syria Civil Defense members, known as White Helmets, working to save the boy named Ahmed, who was pulled out of the rubble and covered in debris from his home in the village of Qatma, just north of Aleppo.
Ahmed, who had blood on his clothes and scrapes on his body, was heard crying as a rescuer took him in his arms.
White Helmets immediately brought Ahmed to an ambulance, giving him oxygen as they appeared to rush to a medical center where he was treated for his injuries. It’s not clear what happened to his parents, and the boy’s age was not provided.
The powerful earthquake rocked southeast Turkey and northwest Syria Monday, and has already claimed the lives of about 2,300 people in Turkey and 1,440 in Syria. Here’s what we know about it so far:
The earthquake was followed by another tremor with almost equal magnitude, which furthered the devastation and made it difficult for rescuers to conduct their operations. A total of 145 aftershocks were recorded by the Turkish government Monday.
The World Health Organization said the number of fatalities is expected to rise significantly, and experts are projecting north of 10,000 lives lost.
The earthquake took out entire apartment blocks, destroyed historical sites, ruined hospitals and has left at least 16,500 people injured.
Biting winter weather made life even worse for the displaced victims, many of whom are newly homeless and will be forced to sleep outside in the freezing conditions. In Turkey, rescuers attempted to pick through the rubble despite snow and heavy rain.
The quake was so powerful it could be felt as far as Lebanon, Cyprus, and Egypt.
The United States said Monday it was deploying a disaster assistance response team to both Turkey and Syria.
President Biden spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pledging aid and emergency assistance.
Abdul Salam al-Mahmoud, a resident in the Syrian town of Atareb, said the aftermath “was like the apocalypse.”
“It’s bitterly cold and there’s heavy rain, and people need saving,” he said.
Raed al-Saleh of the White Helmets said his members were in “a race against time to save the lives of those under the rubble.”
The quake hit war-ravaged Syria’s already-suffering northwest region, which is divided between government-controlled areas and rebel-held towns. Before being struck by the quake, the area was experiencing a massive humanitarian crisis after a decade of civil war, only exacerbated by a recent cholera outbreak.
Many of the people in the region have been displaced by the war and were living in poverty in refugee camps, where supplies were already thin.
“I’m literally taking a patient off a ventilator to give another patient a chance, having to decide which patient has more of a chance of surviving or not,” said Shajul Islam, a British doctor in Idlib who works with charities in Syria.
Already battered by war
Before being hit Monday, Islam said the hospital barely had the infrastructure to help its patients.
“We’ve got quite a lot of hospitals that had been previously hit in the war. So already foundations, everything had been weakened,” Islam said, guessing that the earthquake put another three or four hospitals “out of service.”
In another heartbreaking scene of death and survival, Syrian toddler Raghad Ismail was plucked from her home’s rubble, but her mother and other family members were crushed under the building’s weight.
Raghad, just 18 months, miraculously wasn’t injured. Her uncle Abu Hassam said her dad likely broke his back. Her pregnant mom, 5-year-old sister and 4-year-old brother were all killed.
Heroics at hospital
In Turkey, doctors in Iskenderun rushed to save people in a state-run hospital that had mostly collapsed.
“All of a sudden, the building started to shake, and it gradually grew,” said a nurse named Merve. “My friends and I did not try to leave the building, we didn’t leave our patients. Then we heard a terrible noise, the building started to collapse.”
A Turkish official said late Monday that 7,840 people in the country had been rescued and a stunning 5,606 buildings had collapsed.
President Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning and said that 45 nations had already offered their help.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has close ties to Syrian President Assad, ordered some Russian soldiers already in Syria to help the rescue efforts. Putin said the country will also help Turkey, and sent a telegram to Erdogan pledging his support.
One Turkish legislator told the media Monday many of his family members in the region remained stuck under their homes.
“There are so many other people who are also trapped,” Huseyin Yayman said. “There are so many buildings that have been damaged. People are on the streets. It’s raining, it’s winter.”
The quake Monday is the country’s worst since 1999, when more than 17,000 people were killed in a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which hit the Turkish city of Izmit.