Rescue teams are pulling more survivors, including entire families, from collapsed buildings even as hopes are fading as the death toll from a massive earthquake that hit the border area Turkey And her Syria five days ago it topped 25,000.

Dramatic rescue events are broadcast on Turkish television, including the rescue of the Narli family in the center of Kahramanmarash, 133 hours after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The first to be rescued was 12-year-old Nehir Naz Narli, followed by both of her parents.

This came after a family of five was rescued from a pile of rubble in the heavily damaged city of Nurdagi in Gaziantep province, HaberTurk TV reports. The rescuers burst into applause and shouts – “God is great!” – when the last member of the family, the father, was taken to a safe place.

Tayyip Erdogan, while touring earthquake-affected cities, increased the death toll in Turkey to 22,327, raising the total death toll in the region, including government and rebel-controlled areas of Syria, from 22,327 to 25,880.

The Turkish president said that a natural disaster of this magnitude is rare, affecting such a large area where so many people live. He called the tragic event “the catastrophe of the century” and said it affected an area 500 kilometers in diameter, home to 13.5 million people in Turkey and an unknown number in Syria.

“In some parts of our communities near the fault line, we can say that there is almost no stone left unturned,” he said on Saturday from Diyarbakir.

However, the day brought one amazing save after another, bringing the total number of saves to 12.

Melissa Ulkow, 20, was pulled from the rubble in Elbistan 132 hours after the earthquake after rescuing another person in the same place at the same time. Before her rescue, the police announced that people should not cheer or cheer so as not to interfere with other rescue efforts in the area. She was covered with a thermal blanket on a stretcher. The lifeguards embraced. Some shouted, “God is great!”

Just an hour earlier, a three-year-old girl and her father were rescued from the rubble in the city of Islahia, also in the province of Gaziantep, and shortly after, a seven-year-old girl was rescued in the province of Hatay.

Rescue efforts have brought moments of joy on bleak days following Monday’s 7.8 earthquake and a massive aftershock hours later that toppled thousands of buildings. Along with nearly 26,000 people who died, more than 80,000 were injured and millions were left homeless.

But not everything ended well…

Early on Saturday morning, rescuers managed to find a 13-year-old girl among the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay province and intubate her. But she died before doctors could amputate the limb and free her from the rubble, Hurriyet newspaper reported.

While experts say trapped people could survive a week or more, the chances of finding other survivors quickly dwindle in the freezing cold. Rescuers have turned to thermal imaging cameras to help detect life in the wreckage, a sign that survivors may be too weak to call for help.

As aid continued to flow, a 99-man Indian Army Medical Assistance Brigade began treating the wounded at a makeshift hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun, where the main hospital collapsed.

A man named Shukru Janbulat was taken to the hospital in a wheelchair with a severely injured left leg. Sobbing in pain, he said he was rescued from a collapsed apartment building in the nearby city of Antakya hours after Monday’s earthquake. But after receiving first aid, he was released without proper treatment for his injuries.

“I buried (everyone I lost), then I came here,” Dzhanbulat said, counting his dead relatives: “My daughter died, my younger brother died, my aunt, her daughter and her son’s wife,” who were at 8 ,5 months pregnant.

Makeshift cemeteries

On Saturday, a large makeshift cemetery was being built on the outskirts of Antakya. Excavators and bulldozers were digging holes in a field on the northeastern outskirts of the city. trucks and ambulances continued to arrive, loaded with black bags. Soldiers directing traffic on a busy adjacent road warned drivers not to take pictures.

Hundreds of graves, no more than a meter apart, are marked with simple wooden boards placed perpendicular to the ground.

An official from the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs, who did not want to be named because of an order not to disclose information to the media, said that on Friday, his first day of work, about 800 bodies were delivered to the cemetery. As many as 2,000 people were buried at the site by Saturday afternoon, he said.

“People emerging from the rubble now is a miracle if they survive. Most of the people coming out now are dead and coming here,” he said.

Temperatures throughout the region remained below freezing and many people were left homeless. The Turkish government has given away millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but is still unable to help many in need.

Tragedy of Syria

The disaster has exacerbated serious problems in a region torn apart by a 12-year civil war in Syria that has displaced millions of people in the country and left them at the mercy of international aid. The fighting forced millions of people to seek refuge in Turkey.

The civil conflict has isolated many parts of Syria and complicated relief efforts. The United Nations said the first convoy carrying humanitarian aid for earthquake victims passed from Turkey to northwestern Syria on Friday, a day after the humanitarian mission was scheduled before the disaster struck.

UNHCR estimates that up to 5.3 million people have been left homeless in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife visited the wounded at a hospital in the coastal city of Latakia, the base of support for the Syrian leader.

Syrian state television reported that Assad and his wife Asma visited Dudu Nuralu, 60, and her son, Ibrahim Zakaria, 22, who were dragged out of the rubble in the nearby coastal town of Jable the night before.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, arrived in Aleppo in northern Syria on Saturday, bringing with him 35 tons of medical equipment, state news agency SANA reported. He noted that another plane with an additional 30 tons of medical equipment would arrive in the coming days.

The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, which operates in territory controlled by Syrian rebels, said on Saturday that it was “nearly impossible to find people alive.”

The total death toll in rebel-held northwestern Syria has reached 2,166, according to the White Helmets. The total death toll in Syria rose to 3,553 on Saturday, including government-controlled areas of the country.

Source: Associated Press.