Teenage girl freed from rubble 10 days after earthquake in Turkey

A teenage girl was pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey on Thursday, more than 10 days after an earthquake killed more than 42,000 people in the country and neighboring Syria, as the families of those still missing awaited news of her fate.

The 17-year-old was rescued in southeastern Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, broadcaster TRT Haber reported, 248 hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck on the night of February 6.

Footage shows him being carried on a stretcher to an ambulance covered in a gold-colored thermal blanket.

The death toll from Turkey’s deadliest earthquake in modern history has risen to 36,187, authorities said. In Syria, where the earthquake has fueled a humanitarian crisis caused by a 12-year war, the reported death toll is around 5,800 – a figure that has not changed for several days.

While some people were also found alive in Turkey on Wednesday, reports of rescues have become increasingly rare. Authorities in Turkey and Syria have not announced the number of people still missing.

Millions of people are in need of humanitarian aid after being left homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures.

In the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, photographs of the two missing boys have been tied to a tree near the block of flats where they live.

“Her parents are dead,” said quake victim Bayram Nacar, who stood waiting with other masked locals as excavators cleared piles of broken concrete and twisted metal rods behind trees.

He said the parents of the children were still under the rubble.

“The father was named Atilla Sariyildiz. His remains have not been found. We hope to find the parents after the excavators clear the debris.”

More than 4,300 aftershocks have hit the disaster zone since the initial quake, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said.

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Aid convoys take off in Syria

The Syrian government announced the death toll in the occupied territories as 1,414, saying this was the final tally.

Most of the casualties in Syria have been in the rebel-held northwest, but rescuers say no one has been found alive there since February 9 and the focus has shifted to helping survivors.

With much of the region’s sanitation infrastructure damaged or unusable, health authorities face a difficult task in ensuring that people today remain disease-free.

Relief efforts in the northwest have been hampered by conflict and many people there feel left behind as aid goes to other parts of the disaster zone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it was particularly concerned about the well-being of people in the north-west, where some four million people had been dependent on humanitarian aid before the quake.

Aid deliveries from Turkey were cut off shortly after the earthquake, while routes used by the United Nations were temporarily blocked.

Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave approval for two additional crossings to be opened for aid – more than a week after the earthquake. The WHO asked them to give their approval for more access points to be opened.

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As of Thursday, 119 UN trucks have passed through the Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam intersections since the earthquake, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters.

The aid includes food, essential medicines, tents and other shelters, and cholera testing kits, as the region is still experiencing a cholera outbreak.

Britain said on Wednesday it had issued two new licenses to facilitate aid agencies helping earthquake relief efforts to operate in Syria without violating sanctions aimed at the Assad government and its supporters.