Turkey-Syria quake: Survivors still being rescued as death toll crosses 45,000

Turkish rescuers have pulled three people, including a child, alive from the rubble 13 days after a massive quake claimed tens of thousands of lives, local media reported.

The quake has killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey and Syria, injured tens of thousands of others and left millions without shelter in freezing temperatures.
The quake has killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey and Syria, injured tens of thousands of others and left millions without shelter in freezing temperatures. Photo courtesy: Twitter/@molhamteam

Earlier, Turkish rescuers pulled a 14-year-old boy and two men nearly 11 days after the huge earthquake, a minister said, as rescue efforts wind down.

Osman, 14, was rescued 260 hours after the 7.8-magnitude tremor struck Turkey's southeast and Syria, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.

Hakan Yasinoglu had been stuck under a flattened building in the hard-hit Hatay province for 278 hours when workers reached him on Friday. Teenager Osman Halebiye and Mustafa Avci, 34, were also saved in Antakya.

Rescuers found Osman after hearing sounds in the rubble, Anadolu state news agency reported.

One hour later, rescuers elsewhere saved two men aged 26 and 33 in Antakya, Koca said, also sharing images of the men receiving treatment from health workers.

The DHA news agency named the men as Mehmet Ali Sakiroglu, 26, and Mustafa Avci, 33, and said they had been rescued from the same building's rubble.

The quake has killed more than 45,000 people in Turkey and Syria, injured tens of thousands of others and left millions without shelter in freezing temperatures.

The tremor struck 11 provinces in Turkey. Turkish officials have said rescue efforts in three provinces, Adana, Kilis and Sanliurfa, have been completed.

Turkish interior minister Suleyman Soylu has updated the death toll in Turkey to 39,672.

Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Turkey after last week’s massive earthquake, the ex-Chelsea winger’s Turkish agent said.

A total of 178 trucks carrying aid from Turkey into northwest Syria have crossed the border since February 9, the UN has said.

Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on Friday the trucks carried a “multitude” of items from six UN agencies – including tents, mattresses, blankets, winter clothes, cholera-testing kits, essential medicines and food from the World Food Programme.